Madonna appeals adoption decision

This from Us:

Madonna has already filed her appeal following the judge's ruling that she can't adopt Mercy James, her lawyer confirms."We are very surprised with this ruling," Alan Chinula says. Because we've never been denied anything before. It's a horrible and unfamiliar feeling.

On Wednesday, Chinula told Us he didn't see "any law in Malawi that [could] stop" the adoption. Obviously he didn't look very hard. But Judge Esme Chombo cited requirements that adoptive parents reside in the country for 18 to 24 months.

Human rights groups -- which had charged Madonna was using her celebrity status to bypass laws -- are cheering the decision. "The judge has sent the right message that we have laws in Malawi that have to be respected," Undule Mwakusungura, the chairman of the Human Rights Consultative Committee, tells Us. "We can't just have people flying in and out with our children without procedure," he adds. But Women and Child Welfare minister Anna Kachikho -- who oversees the country's adoptions -- says she's "shocked by the ruling. "I don't see what's wrong for Madonna to take one child as her own," she tells Us. "She has not used the back door." One child, two children, who's counting?

So why was Madonna allowed to adopt David, but not Mercy? "It's a shocker, but [Chombo] belongs to the old school; she is very religious and a moralist," a source at Malawi's High Court tells Us. "She might not be in favor of Madonna's lifestyle of getting in and out of relationships and her semi-nude stage antics." She's a total prude that Chombo. I always knew that about her.

AP FILE PHOTO

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[joe blow]

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