Tennessee Opens the Records
Dateline: 09/27/99In a long-awaited decision, the Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld a 1995 law giving adult adoptees, or their legal representatives, 21 years of age or older, access to their original birth records.
In the unanimous decision filed today, Chief Justice Riley Anderson cited past adoption law as the basis of the court's ruling. Early law in Tennessee involved recording of adoption documents, with no provisions for confidentiality or privacy for birth parents. Subsequent rulings limited access to those documents, but only to the extent of requiring a judicial order.
There simply has never been an absolute guarantee or even a reasonable expectation by the birth parent or any other party that adoption records were permanently sealed. In fact, reviewing the statutes of adoption in this state reveals just the opposite." -- page 9 of the decisionVetoes Remain
Two vetoes included in the original legislation will remain:Requesting Records
- Contact veto: This allows a birth parent or other related party to prevent contact after disclosure of identifying information and acts much in the same way as a restraining order.
- Disclosure veto: Birthmothers who conceived as a result of rape or incest can effectively block the release of any identifying information.
The state will begin processing requests in the order they were received. Informed sources say that requests already on file number between 2,000 - 3,000.
Request your records
Reference Material
- Access to Records in TN from the State of Tennessee
- Adoptee Rights in Tennessee from Bastard Nation
© Nancy S Ashe
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