Supreme Court declines to hear appeal in disputed Afghan adoption case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal in a disputed adoption case involving an Afghan child orphaned in a U.S. Army raid.

The child's relatives appealed to the high court after a U.S. Marine who helped evacuate them from Afghanistan took custody of the girl despite State Department efforts to reunite her with her Afghan family.

A 2022 Associated Press report about the case raised alarms at the highest levels of government, from the Taliban to the White House.

The child's parents were killed in September 2019 when U.S. Army Rangers, along with Afghan forces, raided a rural compound.

The baby was found in the rubble and hospitalized at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, where military lawyer Joshua Mast decided with his wife to adopt her.

But the State Department during President Donald Trump’s first administration worked with the Afghan government to track down surviving relatives, identified as a cousin and his wife.

The Afghan couple raised her for 18 months, but during that time the Masts also obtained a final adoption order from a Virginia court without notifying them. The Masts have insisted they acted honorably to save a child and give her a loving home.

In 2021, Joshua Mast helped the family leave Afghanistan during the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

Once they were in the U.S., Mast took the child at a refugee resettlement center over her relatives' objections.

The Afghan couple went to court, asking judges to undo the adoption they said was deeply flawed from the start. Lower courts in Virginia agreed. But the state's highest court decided in the Masts' favor, citing a six-month deadline in state law.

Their Supreme Court appeal was backed by a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan as well as groups that support veterans and international adoptees.

The Masts dispute the family's kinship and argue that reopening the adoption now would be a significant disruption for the girl, who is now 7 and has been living with their family for years.

Galofaro reported from Louisville, Kentucky.