A.A. v. Mast

(Filed: Sept. 16, 2026)

In September 2019, Baby Doe's biological parents were killed in a U.S. military operation in Afghanistan. She went to live with the A.’s, her biological kin, who continued to raise her for the next eighteen months of her life. 

Unbeknownst to them, a U.S. Marine and his wife, Joshua and Stephanie Mast, obtained a Virginia adoption order for Baby Doe based on claims that she was a stateless orphan. The Masts lured the A.s to Virginia with the promise of obtaining medical care for Baby Doe. When the family arrived, the Masts used the adoption order to take Baby Doe, then two years old, from the A’s. The A.s have not seen her since.

Virginia's intermediate appellate court voided the adoption, but the Virginia Supreme Court reversed. In a split decision, the Virginia Supreme Court held that the A.s had no constitutionally protected interest in Baby Doe because they weren't her biological parents and lacked a Western-style adoption order. As such, the Court found that they were not entitled to notice and an opportunity to contest the adoption order before it was granted. The A.s have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case, asserting that they had a fundamental due process right to notice and an opportunity to be heard in the adoption proceedings before the Virgina courts could permanently terminate their relationship with Baby Doe. 

Upper Seven Law represented the KARAMAH Institute in filing an amicus brief on behalf of the petitioners arguing that the Virginia Supreme Court got the due process question wrong because it failed to appropriately consider Afghan law in determining that the A’s lacked a protected interest in their relationship with Baby Doe.