Not until the parent becomes unable to care for the children, holds the New Jersey Superior Court in A.W. v. T.D. (N.J. Super. Ct. Ch. Div. Nov. 19, 2013). (Note that this relates to a change in custody, and does not necessarily govern an initial custody decision.) [UPDATE: I now include a link to the […]
Archive | Children’s Rights
“No … Rule Required [Mother to Comply with Social Services Orders] with a Smile on Her Face”
From In re D.R. (Wash. Ct. App. Oct. 15, 2013) (nonprecedential) (some paragraph breaks added, some removed): B.R. gave birth to a son, D.R., on December 10, 2006. Just before D.R.’s second birthday, Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) removed him from B.R.’s care and initiated a dependency proceeding after a neighbor reported seeing […]
Hitting 12-Year-Old Child with Wooden Spoon Need Not Be “Child Abuse,” Even If It Leaves Bruises
So holds the California Court of Appeal in Gonzalez v. Santa Clara County Dep’t of Social Servs. (Cal. Ct. App. Oct. 8, 2013). The court does not holds that such behavior can never be child abuse, but it concludes that the Department of Social Services and the court below didn’t sufficiently consider the possibility that […]
Parent Convicted for Publicly Humiliating 12-Year-Old as Punishment for Getting an “F”
From State v. Broten (Minn. Ct. App. Sept. 3, 2013) (some paragraph breaks added), which upholds the conviction: In May 2012, officers from the Fridley Police Department were dispatched to a townhome in Fridley to investigate a report of a girl with a shaved head being forced to run outside wearing a diaper. An individual […]
No Presumption in Favor of Custodial Parent as to Changing a Child’s Last Name
An interesting opinion today from the New Jersey Supreme Court, Emma v. Evans (N.J. Aug. 12, 2013). In Gubernat v. Deremer, 140 N.J. 120 (1995), a case involving a dispute over a name chosen by the mother at birth (when the parents weren’t living together), the court concluded that, [I]n contested cases the surname selected […]
Poverty and Child Custody
An interesting Appellate Court of Illinois decision, Cole v. Johnson (Ill. App. Ct. July 23, 2013) (some paragraph breaks rearranged); see, in particular, the last three paragraphs: The petitioner is Cody Cole, and the respondent is Kathryn Anne Johnson. They live in Paris, Illinois, and have a two-year-old son, L.C. They were engaged to be […]
“Mature Minors” and Refusal of Likely Life-Saving Treatment
In re Sheila W. (Wisc. July 10, 2013) involves this issue, though the court declines to reach the question on grounds of mootness: The petitioner, Sheila W., is a minor who was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. She opposed on religious grounds any life-saving blood transfusions and her parents supported her position. [Sheila W. is a […]
Can You Get a Restraining Order Against Someone’s Having Sex with Your Daughter (Who Is Above the Age of Consent But Under 18)?
By Eugene Volokh on March 13, 2013 6:31 pm in Children's Rights, Parental Rights, Sexual Conduct Restrictions
From today’s Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in E.C.O. v. Compton: This case concerns whether a parent may seek an extension of an abuse prevention order under G.L. c. 209A to prevent his daughter, who was sixteen years of age [and thus above the age of consent in Massachusetts] from voluntarily engaging in a sexual […]
District Judges Split on Whether California Ban on Sexual Orientation Change Therapy for Minors Is Constitutional
By Eugene Volokh on December 5, 2012 10:18 am in Children's Rights, Freedom of Speech, Parental Rights
I was too swamped yesterday to blog about this, but Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) has a characteristically excellent summary: This week, two federal district court judges in the Eastern District of California, in two separate cases, reached opposite conclusions about the constitutionality of California’s new law (effective Jan. 1, 2013) totally banning mental health […]
English Court Lets 10-Year-Old Girl Choose to Be Baptised, Over Jewish Mother’s Objections (but with Christian Father’s Permission)
By Eugene Volokh on August 6, 2012 1:18 pm in Child Custody and Constitutional Law, Children's Rights, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom
There’s been some recent buzz about this court decision, In the Matter of C (Romford County Ct. May 11, 2012); see, for instance, here, here, and here. I tend to think the court decision is correct, and here’s why. The parents were nonobservant Jews for most of their marriage, but at the very end of […]
California Bill Would Ban Psychotherapy Aimed at Changing Under-18-Year-Olds’ Same-Sex “Desires, Attraction, or Conduct”
By Eugene Volokh on April 25, 2012 3:25 pm in Children's Rights, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom, Sexual Orientation
The bill is SB 1172, and it bans “psychotherapy” of under-18-year-olds “aimed at altering the sexual or romantic desires, attractions, or conduct of a person toward people of the same sex so that the desire, attraction, or conduct is eliminated or reduced or might instead be directed toward people of a different sex.” This so […]
Foster Parenting and Religion
By Eugene Volokh on March 13, 2012 5:45 pm in Children's Rights, Parental Rights, Religion and the Law
From BK v. New Hampshire Dep’t of Health and Human Services (D.N.H. Mar. 7, 2012): This case raises the potentially important issue of whether state authorities violate the free exercise rights of children, or their parents, under the First Amendment by placing the children with foster families who subject them to practices abhorrent to their […]
Children’s Immunizations, and Disputes Between Divorced Parents
What happens when divorced parents with joint legal custody disagree about whether their child should be given the routine childhood immunizations? That’s the issue in Grzyb v. Grzyb (Va. Cir. Ct.), decided in mid-2009 but just uploaded to Westlaw a day or two ago. The Grzybs were the divorced parents of a 3-year-old girl, with […]
Constitutional Right to Moderately Corporally Punish One’s Child
So held the Hawaii Supreme Court, in Hamilton ex rel. Lethem v. Lethem (Haw. Feb. 7, 2012), interpreting the Hawaii Constitution, though in reasoning that could be seen as applicable to the federal Constitution and to other state constitutions. And the court concluded that even a noncustodial parent retains this right “with respect to that […]