Major Issues in Family Law - Essay Example

Family Law Part I Is the child bound by Ron and Sharon’s agreement? Ron and Sharon agreed on Ron waiving all his parental rights to Sharon thereby making her the sole parent and Ron a non-parent. The child being born will therefore be bound by the agreement and will therefore have Sharon as its only parent with Ron being a non-parent. The case of Alison D. v. Virginia M. is to be cited in this case as they are quite similar. In both cases, the biological parent of the child is only one and the other is a non-parent. According to the Supreme Court ruling of this case, the child’s sole custody and rights of parenthood belong to the biological parent and who can decide on matters of visitation or custody of the child (Groner 217). This case of Sharon and Ron can be ruled using the Troxel v. Granville case where the mother of the children Granville got sole custody of her children and had the rights to grant visitation or agree to custody to a non-parent or refute it. The parent had the liberty to make decisions for his or her children according to the Supreme Court ruling (Sanger 78). Ron was sure that the child Sharon was carrying was not his and hence his quick agreement to waive all his parental rights and be relieved of any child support of the unborn child once it was born. The agreement will not change once the child is born as it was made to be enforced once the child was born. The fact that the court supports Sharon as the biological parent cements the agreement further. Part II a) Under Troxel, what standard should a court use in evaluating the constitutionality of a statute governing the award of custody or visitation to a nonparent? The Troxel case ruling made it clear that the Washington State visitation law which granted the non-parents the right to claim custody and visitation of children would not be applied or used again. The Supreme Court rule that the parent of the child or children holds the fundamental right over the care, control and even custody of the children and hence would be the one to make decisions about any visitation or custody of their children to non-parents (Sanger 87). Any other law that was against or tried to go against the parental liberty towards the custody of their children over that of the non-parents was to be considered unconstitutional and was infringing on the law as well as on the fundamental right of the parent. The standard to be used is that of parental liberty over that of non-parents. b) Does Troxel preclude use of a best interests test in custody or visitation litigation between a parent and nonparent? The Troxel case does not make any preclusion about the best interests of the children in custody or visitation litigation between a non-parent and a parent. The ruling of the case simply states that the parent of the children has the liberty to make decisions about the custody or care through visitation of their children to any non-parent (Sanger 87). This ruling which I deemed constitutional is however only to be effected as long as the parent in discussion is deemed fit to handle the task of caring of the children in all aspects. The interests of the children are what drive the court to make the declaration of the parent having the liability. The interests will still be used to make decisions in case the parent in unfit to take care of the children (Kasdin 2012). c) According to Troxel, what are the functions of the modern family? According to the Troxel case, the role of the modern family as described by both the grandparents and the mother of the children is to protect the children and keep them from any harm. Other than these two roles, there is also the fact that families provide love to their own when they are among them. They also provide opportunities for the family members to interact with each other and get involved in familial activities such as sing together among others. Families are also supposed to be attending family occasions such as birthday parties and celebrate as one unit (Sanger 167). All these functions are supposed to be carried out by a modern family as an independent unit and not while separated by visitation and custody rights. On which family functions are most important to individual family members? The case has brought to attention several important family functions that demand the presence of all family members despite the differences existing within the family members and especially the adults. One of the mentioned important family functions is the birthday party of one of the family members. Other than the birthday parties, there is also the family gathering functions where the whole family comes together and have fun through introduction forums as well as other activities such as music sessions. The summer holidays are also important for families as they get to spend more time together and participate in these functions as one. There are also the special holidays which are important to most American families which include Easter and thanksgiving holidays. To the public? The public cares about having large gatherings through holidays such as the Christmas holiday and the New Year which are considered some of the most important holidays in the nation for families to be together. Other than these two holidays, there is the Independence Day and Labor Day which marks the end of summer and the people like to come together and spend time together. The family gatherings during these holidays and functions is considered courteous and a must in the calendar of the year. This is in addition to the Thanksgiving holiday as well as Halloween. How have these patterns shifted? All these patterns of families spending time together through attendance of all family occasions and functions as well as special holidays have been curtailed in the Troxel case due to the mother reducing the visits to the grandparents’ homes. The mother of the daughters has taken them away from spending more time with their paternal grandparents and limiting their visits to only a weekend in a month and they do not stay overnight. It has also shifted because of the divorce of the parents and the death of their biological father. The children will therefore be missing on all the special holidays and grandparents’ birthdays as well as meeting the other family members occasionally which are what they had gotten used to. All of this is because their mother has decided on them being in her custody more. Work Cited Groner, Jonathan. Hilarys Trial: The Elizabeth Morgan Case, A Childs Ordeal in Americas Legal System. New York: American Lawyer Books and Simon & Schuster, 1991. Print. Kasdin, Karin. Constitutional Rights of Grandparents: Do We Have Any? The Huffington Post, March 16th, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karin- kasdin/constitutional-rights-of-grandparents_b_1338963.html? Sanger, Carol. Family Law Stories. New York: Foundation Press, 2008. Print. Read More