Khristy Goins Rismiller, Tutrix for Daniel Edward Goins, et al. v. Gemini Insurance Company, et al.

Do children given in adoption have a constitutional right to sue for the wrongful death of their biological parent and siblings under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution?

Has this Court in Levy v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 68, 88 S.Ct. 1509, 20 L.Ed.2d 436 (1968), see also, Glona v. American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Co., 391 U.S. 73,88 S.Ct. 1515,20 L.Ed.2d 441 (1968), Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 406 U.S. 164, 92 S.Ct. 1400, 31 L.Ed.2d 768 (1972) and Gomez v. Perez, 409 U.S. 535, 93 S.Ct. 872, 35 L.Ed.2d 56 (1973), “as a constitutional proposition … substituted a biological classification for the [State’s] legal classification”? Warren v. Richard, 296 So.2d 813, 816 (La. 1974).

Intermediate scrutiny is the federal test in equal protection analysis for gender discrimination, Sessions v. Morales-Santana, ___ U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 1678, 1689-1690 (2017) and those born out of wedlock. Clark v. Jeter, 486 U.S. 456, 486, 108 S.Ct. 1910, 1914, 100 L.Ed.2d 465 (1988). Should not intermediate scrutiny also apply when children are born of marriage and are adopted?

Is “birth” rather than the legal “effects of adoption” under La. C.C. art. 119, as construed by the Louisiana Court, the controlling factor in equal protection analysis? If the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision is allowed to stand, then children, whether born of marriage or not, are divested of their legal right to sue for the death of their biological parent and siblings