Case Summary
The Complaint alleged that in 1998 and early 1999, Respondent presided over two adoption cases in the Adoption Court involving lesbian partners. In each case, the child's birth mother and her lesbian partner petitioned for adoption of a child by the mother's lesbian partner. In each case, both the Guardian Ad Litem and the Cook County Department of Supportive Services recommended that the adoption petition be granted. But Respondent, whose conduct suggests that she is prejudiced against homosexuals and believes they should not be permitted to adopt children, attempted to thwart both adoptions. Respondent was eventually removed from the two cases by the presiding judge of the Adoption Court, who then granted each petition. Notwithstanding the presiding judge's orders granting the adoptions and even though Respondent had already been removed from the cases, Respondent took further judicial steps calculated to frustrate and void the adoptions. Respondent's bias against homosexuals resulted in her making rulings contrary to Illinois law and in her advancing her own personal beliefs over the legal rights of the parties who appeared before her.