Baby Jessica Case: 1993

Arguing that the judge had acted improperly by assuming jurisdiction from another state, the Schmidts headed for the Michigan Court of Appeals. Within six weeks, in a 3-to-O decision that ruled only on the question of jurisdiction, that court agreed with the Iowa courts. The DeBoers had 21 days to file an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Meantime, "Baby Jessica" had become a household name and the case caused millions to more closely consider the risks and problems of adoption. In about half of all adoptions, the natural fathers, even if they are known, cannot be located. But what if they turn up demanding their "parental rights?" Who knows—wondered columnists, Op-Ed writers, and talk-show hosts—how permanent any adoption is?

Michigan's seven Supreme Court judges heard the arguments. Representing Baby Jessica, Attorney Scott Bassett said the Schmidts were strangers to the child. "These children don't care about biology," he contended. "They know who loves them and who they love." Schmidt lawyer Marian Faupel insisted that the DeBoers had manipulated delays and appeals in order to buy time to bond with the child—to whom they had no legal right. She added that it was not too late for Jessica to bond with her biological parents, for children are not fragile. "They are somewhere between forged steel," she said, "and delicate teacups."

In June 1993, Cara Schmidt gave birth to a second child, Chloe. On July 2, 1993, Michigan's highest court ruled 6-1, that Michigan held no jurisdiction in the case over Baby Jessica and that she was to be handed over to the Schmidts within one month.

Jan and Robby DeBoer filed a request for the Michigan Supreme Court to stay its ruling until the U.S. Supreme Court could rule on their request to have the case heard there. The court refused the stay, 6—1. Ad hoc "Justice for Jessi" groups began planning bus trips to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate on the steps of the Supreme Court building.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who handled emergency cases from Michigan for the Court, considered the DeBoers's request to block the order, giving Jessica to the Schmidts. He refused. Their argument, he said, "rests, in part, on the relationship that they have been able to develop with the child after it became clear that they were not entitled to adopt her."

On July 30, 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to lift the deadline for Jessica's return to her natural parents. Justices Harry A. Blackmun and Sandra Day O'Connor dissented. "This is a case that touches the raw nerves of life's relationships," wrote Justice Blackmun. "I am not willing to wash my hands of this case at this stage, with the personal vulnerability of the child so much at risk."

Three days later, the 2 and one-half-year-old was carried, screaming, from the DeBoers's home by their lawyer, Suellyn Scarnecchia, and placed in the back seat of a minivan filled with Jessica's favorite toys, clothing and bedding. With Cara and Dan Schmidt, Jessica flew the 400 miles from Ypsilanti, Michigan, to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by private plane. She napped during half the trip, then awoke and played contentedly with her toys. When they landed, Baby Jessica had a new name, Anna Jacqueline Schmidt.

Nine months later, Jan and Robby DeBoer successfully adopted a newborn boy. His name is Casey. Meanwhile, child psychoanalyst Lucy Biven, who supervised Baby Jessica's transition to the Schmidt home, where she is now known as Anna Lee, reported that "her adjustment has been so unexpectedly good that I give the Schmidts and the DeBoers a lot of credit." And, a year after the transfer, Cara Schmidt said, "Everyone guaranteed—guaranteed—that she would have short-term trauma, that she wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, she'd cry. It didn't happen. She progressed rapidly."

Sadly, the strain of the court cases permanently damaged both marriages. In October 1999, Jan and Robby DeBoer divorced after 17 years of marriage. They released a statement after the divorce, saying that, "The loss of our daughter was more than our mariage could handle." Later that month, Cara and Dan Schmidt also announced their plans to divorce.

Anna Lee and her younger sister Chloe live permanently with their father, Dan. According to Dan Schmidt, Anna at age 9 had no memory of the custody battle that once raged around her.