(Rutland, Vermont) In a long-running legal dispute between two women over parental visitation rights, a Vermont Family Court judge Thursday issued a stern rebuke to a Virginia woman over her latest attempt to deny her former partner visitation rights to their child.

And Cohen warned Miller, the 6- year-old child’s birth mother, that she risks losing custody of the girl if she continues to violate court orders.

But Cohen also turned down a request from Jenkins that she be given primary custody.  Instead, Cohen ruled that Jenkins must be given five weeks of custody in the summer.

The case was fought for three years in Vermont and Virginia courts.  In December, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, allowing a Vermont court order giving Jenkins visitation rights to stand.

Miller conceived Isabella through artificial insemination. At the time, Miller was in a relationship with Jenkins, which had been formalized by a civil union in Vermont where they then resided. 

When the relationship between the two women soured and they split up, a judge in Vermont gave Jenkins temporary visitation rights with the child.

Miller then fled with her daughter to Virginia, which has some of the most anti-gay legislation in the country. She declared she was no longer a lesbian, hired a conservative Christian law firm – the Liberty Counsel – and went to court in Virginia seeking sole custody of the child.

Miller argued that since gay unions are banned in Virginia she was not obligated to abide by the Vermont ruling.

Jenkins fought the application on the grounds that the case was already before the court in Vermont.

In 2007, the Vermont Supreme Court unanimously concluded that “under well-established laws designed to protect children and families” the Vermont Family Court properly ordered visitation between Janet and her daughter.

Liberty Counsel appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.  But the battle did not end there.

The case then returned to the Virginia Supreme Court which ruled in June that the Vermont high court’s ruling should stand. The court cited the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, which says custody orders of one state must be enforced in other states.

But Miller returned to a lower court in Virginia, requesting a halt in the visitation order.

Frederick County Circuit Judge John Prosser dismissed the application saying the courts had already ruled and Miller presented no new evidence to reopen the case.

Liberty Counsel appealed again to the Virginia Supreme Court which refused to hear the case. In its second appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Liberty Counsel said the Virginia Supreme Court improperly ignored a state law and constitutional amendment that prohibit same-sex unions and the recognition of such arrangements from other states.

By not taking the case, the Supreme Court left it to Family Court in Vermont to determine the details of visitation.