An appeals court ruled Friday that a Mobile County woman can't adopt her female partner's child because of Alabama's law defining marriage as being between a man and woman.

The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals ruled that Cari Searcy can't adopt her partner's child even though the couple was married in California. Searcy said she and Kimberly McKeand were married after responding to a contest advertised in a San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau publication asking people to write an essay explaining why the wanted to marry in California. They married in September 2008 during the brief period before same-sex marriages were banned in California by a ballot measure, Proposition 8.

The unanimous opinion, written by Presiding Judge Bill Thompson, said one member of the couple cannot adopt the other's child. The opinion said marriages between same-sex couples are not recognized in Alabama even if they were conducted in another state.