UPDATE: 8:15 p.m.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court will hear arguments Friday in the case of a woman who lost a court battle with her former same-sex partner over parental rights.

A state judge last October ruled against Barbara Maniaci, following what attorneys for both sides called Montana's first same-sex parental rights trial.

Maniaci is appealing the judge's ruling that Maniaci's former partner, Michelle Kulstad, is a legal parent to two children — a 9-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl — adopted by Maniaci. The judge awarded Kulstad joint custody and decision-making authority over the children's education, health care and "spiritual upbringing."

Maniaci's attorneys say their client is now married to a man, and that she and her husband are entitled to raise their children the way they see fit.

"The fundamental rights of parents to raise children the way they see fit should not be threatened by the wishes and desires of a legal stranger," said Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, who will argue Maniaci's appeal.

"Fit parents have the right and duty to raise their children, and the U.S. Supreme Court and Montana Supreme Court have repeatedly upheld that right. Granting acquaintances and roommates parental rights over the objections of fit parents is a very dangerous precedent," Nimocks said Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Attorney Betsy Griffing of Missoula, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, will argue on behalf of Michelle Kulstad.

"We demonstrated there is a parental relationship between Michelle and the children," Griffing said Tuesday in an AP telephone interview.

"Barbara is claiming that her parental rights are absolute," Griffing said. "We argue that it must be balanced against the constitutional rights of the children and the constitutional rights of the other parent."

The state Supreme Court will travel to Missoula Friday to hear oral arguments at the University of Montana.

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