Law professor David Pimentel has an interesting article detailing the ways in which law and social norms have evolved to the point where perfectly ordinary parenting practices can land you in prison or at least subject you to an expensive lawsuit or prolonged official harrasment [HT: Bryan Caplan and Katherine Mangu-Ward]. As Pimentel points out, […]
Archive | Parental Rights
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 […]
Adoption Over Biological Father’s Objection Approved, Because of Risk That Baby Will Be “Honor Killed”
The case is In the Matter of Q (A Child) (Eng. & Wales Ct. App. Dec. 21, 2011); The Independent (UK) reports: A Muslim man who had a baby with an unmarried woman has been told that his daughter must remain with an adopted family because there is too great a risk that his love […]
An Interesting Parental Rights / Grandparent Visitation / Stepparent Adoption Case
The case is In re Adoption of J.P. (Ark. Dec. 15, 2011), and it involves both a conflict between a father and a deceased mother’s parents (and grandparent), and a challenge to the adoption by the father’s new wife (the child’s godmother, as it happens). The Arkansas Supreme Court indirectly relies on the father’s constitutional […]
Should the Constitution Be Read as Protecting Parental Rights?
That’s a question that some readers asked on another thread, so I thought I’d pass along these excerpts from Troxel v. Granville (2000) on the subject. First, here’s an excerpt from Justice O’Connor’s plurality opinion: The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no State shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of […]
17-Year-Olds in Michigan Have Right to Leave Parents’ Home
That seems to be Michigan law, at least according to Reardon v. Midland Community Schools (E.D. Mich. Sept. 2, 2011): First, some brief attention needs to be given to Michigan law governing the obligation of parents to provide care and support to their children until the age of eighteen on the one hand, and yet, […]
Court Tentatively Decides That State Law Preempts Proposed San Francisco Ban on Circumcision of Boys
By Eugene Volokh on July 28, 2011 12:15 pm in Circumcision Bans, Parental Rights, Religion and the Law
California Business & Professions Code 460(b) reserves the regulation of medical procedures to the state, and preempts contrary local rules: No city, county, or city and county shall prohibit a healing arts professional licensed with the state under Division 2 (commencing with Section 500) from engaging in any act or performing any procedure that falls […]
Liberty and Parental Rights
Some comments on recent posts have suggested that libertarians should support a broad notion of parental rights. I haven’t written at any length on parental rights (except as to the special case parental free speech rights), and my thinking on this is far from definite; and of course I surely can’t speak for libertarians generally. […]
Early Man and the Law
In Friday’s Ex Parte E.R.G., the Alabama Supreme Court struck down the Alabama grandparent visitation statute, holding that it violated the rights of parents. The decision was a splintered 4-3-2 decision, which reflects the Supreme Court’s splintered decision in Troxel v. Granville (2000) — which held that some such laws are unconstitutional, but didn’t decide […]
Planned Anti-Circumcision-of-Boys Initiative in Santa Monica
The proposed anti-circumcision initiative follows the text of the San Francisco initiative. According to the Jewish Journal, “To qualify the initiative for inclusion on the ballot in Santa Monica’s next election in November 2012, its proponents will need to collect signatures from 10 percent of the city’s approximately 61,000 registered voters in the next six […]
Proposed San Francisco Circumcision Ban (with No Discussion of Religious Freedom in This Post)
In November, San Francisco voters will vote on an initiative that would generally ban circumcision of boys under age 18, except when “the operation is necessary to the physical health of the [child] because of a clear, compelling, and immediate medical need with no less-destructive alternative treatment available, and is performed by a … licensed […]
“The Father’s Graphic, Profanity-Laced Death Threats Were Directed at ACS Staff and Hospital Personnel Within Hours of His Son’s Birth”
What a way to enter this world. From In re Leroy R. (N.Y. App. Div., decided today): Order, Family Court, Bronx County (Sidney Gribetz, J.), entered on or about August 31, 2010, which, following a hearing pursuant to Family Court Act § 1028, granted the application of respondent father to release the subject child to […]
Adoption and Foster Parenting by Unmarried Cohabitating Couples Who Have a Sexual Relationship
Arkansas’s Act 1 (passed by a voter initiative, though that didn’t affect the analysis), “an individual is prohibited from adopting or serving as a foster parent if that individual is ‘cohabiting with a sexual partner outside of a marriage that is valid under the Arkansas Constitution and the laws of this state.’” Today’s Arkansas Dep’t […]
Multiculturalism (of an Important Sort) as an American Constitutional Value
By Eugene Volokh on March 31, 2011 10:13 am in Federalism, Freedom of Speech, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom
I have a piece on this in National Review Online today (based on a 2008 post). Here are the opening paragraphs: People talk a lot about “multiculturalism,” whether to praise it or condemn it. But standing alone, the concept is too vague to be supported or opposed. In this respect, it’s much like certain other […]
Colorado Supreme Court on Parents’ Getting Back Custody of Children After Voluntarily Appointing Temporary Guardians
A very interesting case handed down Monday, In the Matter of D.I.S. and Sidman v. Sidman (4-3 vote). Here’s the key legal issue, and the holding: Reviewing an unpublished opinion of the court of appeals, we address whether, in seeking to terminate a guardianship established by parental consent, fit parents may invoke the constitutional presumption […]