Alfred (john) Henry Racine, Iii v. Helane Marie Nelson

Summary

The court affirmed the adoption decree, holding that the biological father's consent was unnecessary because he significantly failed, without justifiable cause, to communicate with or support the child and had not established the required relationship before the adoption petition was filed. The court rejected his constitutional challenge because he was not registered in the putative-father registry and the challenged provision was not applied to him, upheld the finding that adoption was in the child's best interest, and declined to address his argument that his paternity petition should have been decided first because he had not obtained a ruling on tolling below.