05/31/2007 - National Legal News

A Memphis, Tennessee couple has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Tennessee Supreme Court order that they relinquish custody of the eight-year-old Chinese girl they raised from infancy.

Jerry and Louise Baker took in Anna Mae in 1999 when she was less than a month old. The girl’s biological parents, Shaoquiang and Qin Luo He, have been fighting for the return of her custody for seven years. They had put Anna into temporary foster care because they were having financial hardships and felt they could not properly care for her.

In 2004, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned a Memphis judge’s ruling that had taken away the He’s parental rights on grounds of abandonment. The Court ruled in January that the Hes originally lost custody because they did not understand American laws.

The Bakers say that returning Anna to her biological parents will traumatize the young girl because she has never known them. In March, the Hes began interacting with their daughter in a series of court-supervised meetings to prepare for her return to their custody.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet agreed to hear the Bakers’ case.