Lead Opinion
opinion of the Court:
INTRODUCTION
T1 Ramsey Shaud challenges the district court's determination of his rights as a birth father and its grant of a motion in limine preventing his presentation of evidence. The district court concluded that Mr. Shaud did not comply with the provisions of the Utah Adoption Act and therefore waived the right to notice of any judicial proceeding in connection with the adoption of Baby Girl T., as well as the right to refuse to consent to her adoption. It also barred him from presenting evidence that the reason he failed to comply with requirements of the Act was because state employees negligently failed to register his notice of paternity proceedings prior to the birth mother's execution of a consent to adoption.
[ 2 We hold that the Act is constitutionally defective as applied to Mr. Shaud and deprived him of "a meaningful chanee to preserve his opportunity to develop a relationship with his child," T.M. v. B.B. (In re Adoption of T.B.),
BACKGROUND
T8 Shasta B. Tew and Mr. Shaud, residents of Florida, engaged in a sexual relationship and conceived Baby Girl T. Ms. Tew learned that she was pregnant in early June
T4 Mr. Shaud attempted to convince Ms. Tew not to give the child up for adoption and that he was capable of caring for the child. Ms. Tew apparently did not respond to most of Mr. Shaud's entreaties When she did communicate with Mr. Shaud, it was to request that he sign the necessary paperwork to place the child for adoption. In their last telephone communication before the child's birth, Mr. Shaud again insisted that he be allowed to raise the child. In mid-December, Ms. Tew sent Mr. Shaud a letter stating, "I'll be in Arizona and Utah with my family for the holidays and stay on in Utah for a while." Mr. Shaud continued to send Ms. Tew online messages, attempting to convince her to let him have the baby, but Ms. Tew did not respond.
€5 Presumably based on his belief that Ms. Tew was going to be somewhere in Utah to deliver the child, Mr. Shaud retained Utah counsel in early January to assert his paternity claim and prevent a potential adoption. Mr. Shaud's counsel filed a petition to establish paternity and a sworn affidavit with the district court on January 12, 2010. That same day, Mr. Shaud's counsel also sent via facsimile a copy of the notice of commencement of paternity proceedings to the Office of Vital Records and Statistics of the Utah Department of Health (Vital Records). Mr. Shaud's counsel also mailed the original notice. According to Mr. Shaud, Vital Records received this mailing two days later, on January 14. He also asserts that the original time stamp on the mailing envelope, indicating receipt on January 14, was later crossed out and that the envelope was re-stamped as received on January 20. Vital Records entered Mr. Shaud's notice into its confidential putative father registry on January 20, 2010, at 9:15 a.m.
6 Ms. Tew gave birth to Baby Girl T. on January 15, 2010, nearly a month premature. On January 19, Ms. Tew signed an affidavit consenting to the child's adoption through A Act of Love Adoptions (Act of Love), an adoption agency. Act of Love then contacted Vital Records to determine whether anyone had filed a notice of paternity proceedings. At 8:80 a.m. on January 20, 2010, Vital Ree-ords informed Act of Love that it had searched its paternity registry and that "[nlo paternity proceedings have been found pertaining to the child in question." This occurred forty-five minutes before Vital Records entered Mr. Shaud's notice into the registry. Act of Love proceeded with the adoption.
17 A few weeks later, Act of Love filed a verified petition for the determination of Mr. Shaud's parental rights, asserting that he had waived any rights regarding the child because his notice was not entered into the Vital Records registry before Ms. Tew executed her consent to the adoption. Mr. Shaud's counsel gathered evidence that Vital Records had been negligent in entering the notice in a timely manner, and that it had strayed from its normal practice of accepting notices sent via facsimile, rather than requiring originals. Act of Love filed a motion in limine to exclude any evidence that Vital Records was negligent because the Adoption Act explicitly states that a notice of paternity proceedings is not "considered filed [until] it is entered into the registry," Utah Code § 78B-6-121(4), and that acts or omissions of third parties do not excuse an unmarried, biological father from strictly complying with the Act's requirements, id. § 78B-6-106(1). The district court granted the motion and held that Mr. Shaud had relinquished his rights. It concluded that Mr. Shaud had not strictly complied with the Act because his notice of paternity proceedings had not been entered into the Vital Records registry before Ms. Tew consented to the adoption.
8 Mr. Shaud timely appealed the district court's ruling, and the court of appeals certified the case to this court. We have jurisdiction under Utah Code section 78A-3-102(8)(b).
STANDARD OF REVIEW
19 "We review questions of statutory interpretation for correctness, affording
ANALYSIS
10 Under the Adoption Act, the consent of an unmarried biological father is not required before his child is placed with adoptive parents if the father does not satisfy certain requirements. See Utah Code § 78B-6-121(8). The requirement central to this appeal is that an unwed father must "file[ ] notice of the commencement of paternity proceedings ... with [Vital Records], in a confidential registry established by the department for that purpose." Id. § 78B-6-121(8)(c). This notice "is considered filed when it is entered [by Vital Records] into the registry." Id. $ 78B-6-121(4).
$11 The Act's requirements operate under the presumption that an unwed father knows that his "child may be adopted without his consent unless he strictly complies with the provisions of [the Act]." Id. § 78B-6-102(6)(f). This court has consistently upheld the Act's strict compliance standard as constitutionally sound. See, e.g., Sanchez v. L.D.S. Soc. Servs.,
112 But we have not had occasion to address whether due process concerns arise when a father's failure to strictly comply with the Act is allegedly due to a state agency's negligence entirely outside his control. "[A] statute fair upon its face may be shown to be void and unenforceable as applied." In re Adoption of Baby Boy Doe,
113 This is an "exceptional case." In re Adoption of T.B.,
{ 14 Under the district court's interpretation of the Act, an unwed father does not strictly comply with the Act if he does everything in his power to achieve compliance-such as filing all the appropriate paperwork with Vital Records several days, weeks, or months before a birth mother's consent to adoption-but Vital Records nonetheless fails to register his notice prior to the mother's
Act of Love also contends that Mr. Shaud did not preserve this due process argument in the district court. It argues that "Mr. Shaud made vague references to his constitutional parental rights and argued that application of the Act was unfair, [but] he did not specifically raise the issue or present legal authority in support of his position prior to the district court's determination of his parental rights." After reviewing the record, we conclude that Mr. Shaud adequately preserved the due process issue.
I. DUE PROCESS
116 The U.S. and Utah Constitutions mandate that when life, liberty, or property is placed in jeopardy by reason of state action, due process must be accorded the individual affected by such action. U.S. Const. amend. XIV; Utah Const. art. 1, § 7. The bare essentials of due process have been characterized as notice of the proposed action of deprivation "and an opportunity to be heard in a meaningful manner." Chen v. Stewart,
117 To determine whether a legislative enactment improperly deprives a person of due process protections, this court has looked to the U.S. Supreme Court's test set forth in Mathews v. Eldridge,
[The] Mathews [test] dictates that the process due in any given instance is determined by weighing "the private interest that will be affected by the official action" against the Government's asserted interest, "including the function involved" and the burdens the Government would face in providing greater process. The Mathews caleulus then contemplates a judicious balancing of these concerns, through an analysis of "the risk of an erroneous deprivation" of the private interest if the process were reduced and the "probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards."
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld,
A. Mr. Shaud's Interest
118 Mr. Shaud's interest as an unmarried biological father is in having an opportunity to establish a relationship with his biological child. "Under both federal and state law, an unwed biological father has an inchoate interest in a parental relationship with his child that acquires full constitutional protection only when he 'demonstrates a full commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood by [coming] forward to participate in the rearing of his child"" Thurnwald v. A.E.,
119 However, we have stated that an unmarried biological father must be given "an adequate opportunity to comply with the[] statutory requirements" of the Adoption Act in order to assert this interest. Id. 144. This is because "an unwed father's opportunity interest in developing a relationship with his newborn [is] a provisional right that is itself protected by the due process clause of the Utah Constitution." Thurnwald,
the constitution requires that the state provide meaningful procedures through which the father may protect his opportunity to [develop a substantial relationship with his child].... [DJue process guarantees an unwed natural father the right to preserve his parental opportunity by following state procedures. If he fails to comply with the procedures available to protect his right to develop an enduring, committed relationship with his child, a putative father risks the possibility that the natural mother's relinquishment of the child may eliminate his opportunity to acquire constitutionally protectable parental rights before he has been able to obtain them.
Id. ¶ 40 (footnote omitted).
1 20 Mr. Shaud's private interest therefore is in the opportunity to develop a substantial relationship with Baby Girl T. The Act must give him a meaningful and adequate procedure to protect this interest. If the Act does give him a meaningful chance to protect his interest, he may not complain of the termination of his interest when he fails to strictly comply with its procedures.
B. The State's Interest
T 21 The legislature has expressed that the state's interest in the adoption context is "in providing stable and permanent homes for adoptive children in a prompt manner, in preventing the disruption of adoptive placements, and in holding parents accountable for meeting the needs of children." Utah Code § 78B-6-102(5)(a). In this respect, "it is beyond dispute that the state must ... have legal means to ascertain within a very short time of birth whether the biological parents (or either of them) are going to assert their constitutional rights and fulfill their corresponding responsibilities, or whether adoptive parents must be substituted." Thurnwald,
C. The Act's Balancing of Interests
122 As previously discussed, an unwed biological father must "file" a notice of paternity proceedings with Vital Records, and this notice is "considered filed" when Vital Records enters the notice into its confidential registry. Utah Code § 78B-6-121(8)(c), (4). Thus, the Act refers to two separate "filings," only one of which qualifies to trigger protections for the putative father's interest. Unfortunately, the father's filing, which he can control, does not qualify; only Vital Records' acts do.
123 We have noted that, under previous versions of the Adoption Act requiring registration with Vital Records, the registry was intended to serve as "a procedure that would protect the putative father's parental rights if he timely claimed his paternity" and to "strike a balance between two competing interests." Thurnwald,
124 Mr. Shaud alleges, however, that he attempted to use the registry to protect his parental rights in a timely fashion, but that Vital Records negligently delayed the entry of his notice into the registry until after Ms. Tew had consented to the adoption. He argues that the district court's interpretation of the Act permits Vital Records' negligence, over which he had no control and of which he had no notice, to extinguish his opportunity to establish a relationship with his child.
25 We conclude that the district court's interpretation of the Act's strict compliance standard poses an unacceptable risk of erroneous deprivation of unwed fathers' rights. Moreover, we consider it "unnecessary to the state's compelling interests" that a father's notice of paternity proceedings be deemed filed at the time it is entered into the confidential registry. Id. at 189. As noted above, we have previously sanctioned the Act's procedural requirements as not viola-tive of due process. In each of these instances, however, the father's failure to strictly comply with the Act was in some measure due to his own inaction, and not to failures of state-controlled process. See T.M v. B.B. (In re Adoption of T.B.),
126 In this instance, however, the allegation is that negligent actions by a state agency have prevented notice from being filed, resulting in the deprivation of a putative father's opportunity interest in establishing a relationship with his child. Mr. Shaud's allegations therefore present a much different case. Cf. In re Adoption of Baby Boy Doe,
{27 We have expressed concern where an unwed father does not have a "guaranteed window" in which to protect his rights. Thurnwald,
128 This is an unacceptable result. "Utah's registration statute was designed to facilitate permanent and secure placements for newborn children whose unwed fathers take no steps to identify themselves promptly and acknowledge paternity," Sanchez,
129 Additional or substitute procedural safeguards could easily remedy the problem of an uncertain deadline. With additional safeguards, the state could remove Vital Records' discretion and provide unwed fathers with certainty regarding when they will have satisfied the requirement that they file a notice of paternity proceedings. Various states have taken steps to provide such certainty. See, eg., Idaho Code Ann. § 16-1518(2) ("The department shall record the date and time the notice of the commencement of proceedings is filed with the department. The notice shall be deemed to be duly filed with the department as of the date and time recorded on the notice by the department."); Mont.Code Ann. § 42-2-206(1) ("In order to be entitled, because of registration, to receive notice of a termination of parental rights proceeding, a putative father's registration form ... must be received by the department not later than 72 hours after the child's birth."); Neb.Rev.Stat. § 48-104.02 ("[A] notice shall be considered ... filed if it is received by the department or postmarked prior to the end of the [statutory deadline].").
130 Moreover, we have previously noted that when the Act is interpreted in ways that promote uncertainty, such an "interpretation actually works against, rather than promotes, the state's compelling interest in permanent adoptions." Thurnwald,
1 31 To provide Mr. Shaud "a meaningful chance to preserve his opportunity to develop a relationship with his child," In re Adoption of T.B.,
132 We conclude that the district court's decision allowing Mr. Shaud's notice to be considered filed only when Vital Records entered it into the registry violated his due process rights and cannot stand. We therefore remand this case to the district court for resolution of the question of whether Vital Records received Mr. Shaud's notice of paternity proceedings prior to the birth mother's consent to the adoption.
II. PRESERVATION
1383 As noted above, an argument has been made in this case that Mr. Shaud's due process claim should not have been
934 "In order to preserve an issue for appeall,] the issue must be presented to the [district] court in such a way that the [district] court has an opportunity to rule on that issue." Johnson v. State,
1385 As discussed above, the critical issue in this appeal is whether the district court interpreted the Adoption Act in such a way that Mr. Shaud's due process rights were violated. Mr. Shaud argued to this court that "[i]t is unconstitutional and a violation of the notion of fairness and due process if Mr. Shaud is blamed for failing to 'file' his Notice when the only ageney empowered to actually 'file' the Notice was grossly negligent in not timely filing it when received." We look to the record to determine whether this issue was sufficiently identified in the district court. In doing so, we note the following material from the record below:
In Act of Love's Verified Petition for Determination of Birth Father's Rights, it noted that this court has "made it clear that strict compliance [with the Adoption Act] ... is required." It cited Utah cases supporting this proposition, all of which discuss the due process implications of requiring a putative father to comply with the Act. Quoting Sanches v. L.D.S. Social Services, Act of Love also noted that it was of "no constitutional importance" that Mr. Shaud "came close to complying with the statute."680 P.2d 753 , 755 (Utah 1984).
Act of Love further cited to Thurnwald v. A.E.,2007 UT 38 ,163 P.3d 623 . There, we held that a strict interpretation of the Act would deprive a putative father of a guaranteed filing period and violate his due process rights. Id. ¶¶ 25-40.
In response, Mr. Shaud distinguished Act of Love's cited case law by arguing that "Mr. Shaud properly complied with the Utah Code" and that any noneompliance was due to "the inept, inadequate and careless acts of the State of Utah [and] its employee, which is entirely and completely out of his control."
Act of Love then moved for leave to file an over-length memorandum in response. It noted that "Mr. Shaud has raised novel arguments and issues of first impression" regarding "a notice of commencement of paternity proceedings that all agree was not timely entered on the Utah registry ... but which Mr. Shaud claims was received by ... Vital Records before the birth mother ... relinquished her rights to the child."
In Act of Love's memorandum, it argued that "(bly requiring actual entry of the notice in the registry, the statute furthers the state's compelling interests in preventing the disruption of adoptive placements." (Emphasis added.) It further noted that in Thurnwald this court "held that requiring compliance within one full business day following the child's birth comports with the requirements of due process." (Emphasis added.) Citing Sanchez, Act of Love again noted that "[i]t is of no constitutional importance that [Mr. Shaud] came close to complying with the statute."
Act of Love then filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence regarding when Vital Records received the paternity notice. In Mr. Shaud's opposition motion, he discussed the Adoption Act's legislative finding that "the rights and interests of all parties affected by an adoption proceeding*224 must be considered and balanced in determining what constitutional protections and processes are necessary and appropriate." Utah Code $ 78B-6-102(8) (emphasis added). He also recited the legislature's findings that "an unmarried biological father has an inchoate interest that acquires constitutional protection only when he demonstrates a timely and full commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood" and that the Act "has prescribed the conditions for determining whether an unmarried biological father's action is sufficiently prompt and substantial to require constitutional protection." Id. § 78B-6-102(5)(e), (6)(a) (emphases added).
Mr. Shaud also argued that "gross negli-genee cannot undermine the constitutional protections that the adoption code affords [him] for doing everything within his power to comply with the adoption code." (Emphasis added.) He asserted that he should "be afforded the maximum constitutional protection as a putative father" and that evidence of Vital Records' negligence "is relevant to establish that Mr. Shaud could do nothing more to protect his constitutional rights as a putative father." (Emphases added.)
Finally, after the district court granted Act of Love's motion in limine and entered an order terminating Mr. Shaud's parental rights, he filed a motion for the court to reconsider its decision and specifically raised the due process issue. He stated that the "tragic result" of the court's decision "is that putative fathers like Mr. Shaud, who have done everything they physically and legally can do to preserve their rights will have their inherent and constitutional right to raise their children terminated." He further argued that the court appeared to favor "procedure instead of protecting the inherent constitutional rights of Mr. Shaud" and that it failed to recognize "that a putative father has an opportunity interest in developing a relationship with his newborn and that this right is protected by the due process clause of the Utah Constitution." (Emphasis added.) (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
T 36 On this record, we conclude that a due process issue was adequately preserved in the trial court notwithstanding Mr. Shaud's failure to use the words "due process" until his motion to reconsider. The briefing in the district court was infused with due process implications, arguments, and cases. Act of Love repeatedly stated that requiring Mr. Shaud's strict compliance did not pose constitutional concerns, and it suggested to the court that it was not a violation of due process to require strict compliance. Both parties repeatedly cited cases that discussed the interaction of the Act's requirements and due process. The Thurnwald case, discussed by both parties, focused explicitly on interpreting strict compliance with the Act so as to avoid due process implications that arise when a father's compliance is not within his power.
{37 Moreover, Mr. Shaud repeatedly made due process arguments, although they were not labeled as such. He noted that courts must balance the rights of all parties to an adoption proceeding to determine "what constitutional protections and processes" are necessary. As discussed above, this balancing of interests is the general test for determining whether a law improperly infringes on an individual's due process rights. See Mathews v. Eldridge,
138 These are the same arguments that Mr. Shand asks us to resolve today. Their only shortcoming below was that Mr. Shaud did not use the phrase "due process" until his motion to reconsider. Whether a party has properly preserved an argument, however, cannot turn on the use of magic words or phrases. See Pardue v. State,
{ 39 Here, the district court was presented with arguments about due process and a putative father's constitutional rights in a relationship with his child, case law discussing at length the interplay between the Act's strict compliance standard and constitutional due process, and the general question of whether it was fair to Mr. Shaud to lose the opportunity to establish a relationship with his child because of a state agency's alleged negligence. All of this presented a clear "opportunity to address the claimed error, and if appropriate, correct it." Patterson v. Patterson,
CONCLUSION
{ 40 On the alleged facts in this case, Mr. Shaud's notice cannot be considered filed only upon its entry into Vital Records' registry. This definition of "filed" creates unfair uncertainty as to the proper filing date and infringes upon Mr. Shaud's opportunity interest in protecting his relationship with his daughter. Due process requires that we consider Mr. Shaud's notice to have been filed when Vital Records actually received it. We therefore reverse the district court's ruling and remand this case for resolution as to whether Vital Records received Mr. Shaud's notice prior to the birth mother's consent to the adoption.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
1 41 The court today strikes down a provision of the Utah Adoption Act on constitutional grounds. It undertakes this significant step in a case in which the statute's constitutionality was never called into question in the district court and in which we can (and should) resolve the case on statutory grounds. I respectfully dissent because the constitutional issue was not properly preserved by the parties and this is not an appropriate case for us to reach out to resolve it.
{42 Preservation rules are an essential part of our adversary system. In the interests of efficiency, fairness, and justice, appellate courts generally consider only those issues that were specifically raised and resolved in the trial court. See State v. Low,
4 43 The court undermines these interests and distorts the law of preservation in its decision today. First, the court reads far too much into the arguments Shaud presented in the district court; he never preserved a constitutional challenge to the Adoption Act, and the court's contrary conclusion stretches the requirement of preservation beyond recognition. Second, the constitutional question addressed by the court is not properly before us in any event, as there is a statutory ground for affirmance that forecloses evaluation of the due process issue.
[ 44 The law generally limits the issues on appeal to those that were specifically presented to the district court. The requirement of preservation is met if the lower court is given a meaningful opportunity to address the issue that is pressed on appeal. State v. Holgate,
1 45 Shaud failed to preserve a challenge to the constitutionality of the filing standard in the Adoption Act, Utah Code § 78B-6-121(4). At no point in the proceedings below did Shaud assert a claim challenging this provision on constitutional grounds. He complained that its application in this case resulted in an inequity, insisting that he had done everything within his power to protect his parental rights. See supra 135. And he asserted that the untimely filing of his notice of commencement of paternity proceedings resulted from the "inept, inadequate and careless acts of the State of Utah [and] its employee, which [were] entirely and completely out of his control." Supra 135 (first alteration in original). Those challenges, however, were framed in terms that simply questioned the fairness of the statutory scheme on policy grounds. Shaud never identified any basis for striking the statute down on constitutional grounds.
146 The majority never really suggests otherwise. The contentions that are bullet-pointed in its opinion do not include any request, express or implied, that the trial court strike any provision of the Adoption Act as unconstitutional. Instead, the listed contentions simply make general references to the constitutional rights implicated by the Adoption Act and raise vague concerns of unfairness. Specifically, the majority notes that (a) Act of Love asserted in the district court that it was of "no constitutional importance" that Shaud "came close to complying" with the Adoption Act; (b) Shaud responded by insisting that he did everything within his power to comply with the Adoption Act and any filing noncompliance resulted from the State's careless acts; (c) Act of Love's rebuttal relied on the State's "compelling interests in preventing the disruption of adoptive placements" and reiterated that almost complying with the Act "is of no constitutional importance"; (d) Act of Love filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude evidence of the timing of the State's receipt of the paternity notice, while Shaud's response recited legislative findings recognizing the need to consider the "inchoate interest[s]" of unmarried biological fathers meriting "constitutional protection" upon demonstrating "a timely and full commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood"; and (e) Shaud argued that "gross negligence cannot undermine the constitutional protections that the adoption code affords for doing everything within his power to comply with the adoption code." Supra 11 35.
47 None of this comes close to a claim challenging the constitutionality of the filing provision of the Adoption Act or a request that it be deemed unconstitutional. Many of the cited invocations of the constitution were by Act of Love, in the form of a general defense to the statute's constitutionality. Those assertions cannot possibly be construed to satisfy Shaud's responsibility to give the district court an opportunity to rule on the question whether the Act's filing provision runs afoul of the Due Process Clause. In fact, they cut decisively the other way. When Act of Love went out of its way to vaguely defend the statute's constitutionality, that should have underscored for Shaud the need-if he saw one-to squarely present a constitutional claim.
{48 This he failed to do. In the pleading Shaud filed in the district court, he requested no relief that involved striking any statutory provision on constitutional grounds. Instead, he sought only the entry of an order "determining that he hald] strictly and fully complied with Utah Code in filing his Petition for Paternity and Notice of Commencement of Paternity Proceedings with the State of Utah as required ... so as to preserve and protect
49 Shaud fared no better when he eventually got around to mentioning the "constitution." The legislative findings he cited simply acknowledged that the Adoption Act was designed to protect "the rights and interests of all parties affected by an adoption proceeding," including the "inchoate interest" of an unmarried biological father that may "acquire[( ] constitutional protection" if he complies with the statute. In context, this was no sort of suggestion that the statute might run afoul of the constitution and should be struck down on that basis. To the contrary, it was an express assertion that the statute itself protected a father's (inchoate) constitutional rights. Thus, these assertions actually undermine the majority's conclusion that Shaud preserved a constitutional challenge to the Adoption Act. Supra 1 39.
150 The same may be said of Shaud's assertion that "gross negligence cannot undermine the constitutional protections that the adoption code affords for doing everything within his power to comply with the adoption code." Supra 185. Again, this statement uses the term "constitutional," but it in no way amounts to a constitutional challenge to the statute. In fact, instead of challenging the Adoption Act, it again affirms that Shaud's position was that "the adoption code" protected his constitutional rights. Shaud was not asking the district court to strike down the statute. He was restating his view that his rights should be protected under the statute.
[ 51 The deficiency in Shaud's arguments, moreover, was not merely in his failure to use the right "magic words" or to "label[ ]" his argument as one rooted in "due process." Supra 11 37-38. It was that he never asserted a claim or argument that came close to asking the district court to strike down the Adoption Act's filing provision on constitutional grounds. As noted above, Shaud's pleading confirmed that he was simply asking the lower court to deem his notice of paternity statutorily sufficient He was merely seeking, in other words, to protect his rights under the statute in light of his vague concerns about fairness and broad epithets about the State's carelessness. In so doing, Shaud at most raised an objection to the result reached in the district court on alternative-non-constitutional-grounds. That is clearly insufficient under our case law.
II
I 52 Even if Shaud had preserved a constitutional challenge to the Adoption Act, this still would not be an appropriate case to reach the constitutional question because Shaud's claim fails on the statutory ground that he failed to submit a copy of the underlying paternity pleading. Under the Adoption Act, a biological father is required to submit to the Office of Vital Records not only a notice of initiation of paternity proceedings, but also an accompanying copy of the pleading filed in court to establish paternity. Utah Code § 78B-15-401(2). And the biological father's submission is complete-triggering the "filing" obligation of the Office of Vital Records, id. § T78B-6-121(4)-only when the notice of initiation of paternity proceedings is "accompanied by a copy of the pleading which has been filed with the court to establish paternity," id. § 78B-15401(2). In this case, Shaud failed to submit the accompanying copy of the underlying pleading, and he thus failed to do all that was required
1 53 This is accordingly not a case in which it can be said that Shaud "had done all that he could do to strictly comply with the [Adoption] Act." Supra 1 31. Shaud failed to submit the papers required of him under the statute, and thus we need not-and should not-go out of our way to sustain a constitutional right that hypothetically would be implicated if he had done so.
€54 The majority dismisses this problem first on the ground that Shaud's "failure to provide a copy of the paternity petition was 'not the basis of the [district court's] ruling." Supra 128 n. 8, But that is beside the point, as this failure could (and should) stand as an alternative ground for affirmance.
1 55 Alternatively, the majority notes that the statutory provision requiring an accompanying copy of the paternity pleading is directed at the Office of Vital Records, not at putative fathers, and that Vital Records actually "did register Mr. Shaud's notice." Supra 128 n. 8. That is only partially accurate, and also irrelevant. The putative father's filing duties under the statute are modified and clarified by the provision that indicates when his submission may be accepted into the registry of the Office of Vital Records. And because the registry statute unequivocally provides that "[a] notice of ... paternity proceedings may not be accepted into the registry unless accompanied by a copy of the pleading which has been filed with the court to establish paternity," Utah Code § 78B-15-401(2) (emphasis added), a father who wishes to have his filing accepted by Vital Records surely is required to submit a copy of the pleading. In light of this requirement, the fact that in this case the Office of Vital Records ultimately accepted Shaud's filing does not indicate that "Shaud complied" with the Adoption Act, as the majority concludes. Supra 128 n. 8. The Office of Vital Records may have disregarded the clear, unequivocal command of the Adoption Act, but we have no license to do so, and Shaud's filing failure under the statute is another ground for declining to reach the constitutional question resolved by the court today.
156 Thus, I appreciate the due process concerns highlighted in Part I of the majority opinion, but I see no basis for addressing this constitutional question here. Preservation rules are an essential element of our adversary system, and we should not dilute them by stretching their standards to justify our consideration of a question we find interesting or important. The perils of such a move are underscored, moreover, in a case like this one where the constitutional question is not just unpreserved, but not even squarely implicated. We should not go out of our way to decide constitutional questions that are not squarely presented, as this one is not, given that the putative father failed to submit the documents required by statute.
11 57 In due time, we will be presented with a case in which the biological father has fulfilled the requirements of the Adoption Act (to the extent he is able) and preserved a constitutional challenge to its filing provision. We should wait for such a case to resolve the question of the constitutionality of the Adoption Act. I respectfully dissent from a decision that I view as jumping the gun on this issue.