Unmarried couples cannot legally adopt a child together under North Dakota law, the state’s Supreme Court has ruled. The decision blocks a joint adoption request by a grandmother and her partner, who have cared for her grandson since he was four months old. The ruling was issued on Friday, 6 November 2026. It answered a legal question sent to the Supreme Court by the McKenzie County District Court about the state’s adoption laws. The case involved an unmarried couple, identified in court records as D.W. and A.D., who have lived together since 2007. A.D. is the child’s maternal grandmother. The boy, identified as T.J.W.-H., was left in her care by his mother when he was four months old. Both of his biological parents later signed documents agreeing to give up their parental rights and allow the adoption to take place. Although both parents had agreed to the adoption and the child lived with the couple until he was three years old, the state’s highest court ruled that North Dakota law does not allow two unmarried adults to adopt a child together.
Strict reading of statutory categories
Writing the decision for a unanimous court, Justice Douglas Bahr explained that state law sets clear rules about who can apply to adopt a child. Under Section 14-15-03 of the North Dakota Century Code, lawmakers have listed specific groups of people who can adopt a child. The law allows a husband and wife to adopt together, a step-parent to adopt their spouse’s child, or “an unmarried adult” to adopt a child alone. The court ruled that the words “an unmarried adult” refer to one person adopting alone. They do not allow two unmarried adults to apply as a couple. “The absence of the word ‘together’ and of any limit on when and how many unmarried adults may adopt supports the conclusion the legislature intended section 14-15-03(2) to apply to one unmarried adult, not to two or more unmarried adults,” Justice Bahr wrote. The court also pointed out that North Dakota’s adoption laws were based on the 1969 Uniform Adoption Act. That law allowed married couples to apply for joint adoptions but did not give the same right to unmarried couples.
Policy choices rest with lawmakers
The Supreme Court said that deciding who is allowed to adopt a child is the responsibility of lawmakers, not judges. “The legislature, not the judiciary, determines the public policy of who is eligible to adopt,” the court stated in its ruling. The decision also referred to earlier court cases in other US states with similar adoption laws. These included appeals court decisions in Maine, Louisiana and Wisconsin, which also rejected joint adoption requests from unmarried couples living together. The justices noted that some states, including Wyoming, have changed their laws to allow unmarried partners to adopt children together. However, North Dakota lawmakers have not made a similar change. The court said judges cannot extend joint adoption rights to unmarried couples simply because they live together. Such a change would require a clear amendment to the law by the North Dakota Legislative Assembly.
Implications for the McKenzie County petition
The legal question sent to the Supreme Court asked: “Is an unmarried couple able to adopt a child pursuant to any provision of N.D.C.C. § 14-15-03?” By answering “no”, the Supreme Court has effectively stopped D.W. and A.D. from becoming the child’s joint legal parents through their shared adoption application. However, the ruling does not prevent either person from applying to adopt the child individually. Under the current law, one of them could submit an application as a single unmarried adult. If approved, only that person would receive legal parental rights through the adoption. Chief Justice Lisa Fair McEvers and Justices Jerod E. Tufte and Jon J. Jensen fully agreed with the decision. The case has now been sent back to the McKenzie County District Court, which will continue handling the adoption matter in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
