Law Commons^™

You Are Now Entering The School Zone, Proceed With Caution: Educators, Arbitration, & Children’S Rights, Raquel Muniz

Arbitration Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assisted Reproduction Inequality And Marriage Equality, Seema Mohapatra J.D., Mph

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Kennedy declared that “marriage is fundamental under the Constitution and [should] apply with equal force to same-sex couples.” This Article examines how the advent of marriage equality may impact the rights of same-sex couples to have biological children via assisted reproduction and surrogacy. Specifically, this Article points out the ways that the Obergefell decision affects the law of infertility. By the law of infertility, I mean the laws that require insurance coverage of infertility treatments and other assisted reproductive technologies (“ART”). Because same-sex couples are not able to have biological children with each other …

Parents, Babies, And More Parents, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article makes two basic points. First, the three-parent family is here. Once states accept that parenthood does not depend on either biology or marriage, then three parents are inevitable unless the states go out of their way to rule that adults who otherwise meet their definitions of parenthood will not be recognized. Second, as three-parent family recognition increases, there are difficult questions on how to manage the status of each parent. This difficulty arises because the two major trends in the family law—the recognition of a multiplicity of family forms and the insistence on parental equality—are on a collision …

Obergefell’S Ambiguous Impact On Legal Parentage, Leslie Joan Harris

Chicago-Kent Law Review

For more than thirty years, the central questions of the law of parentage have been when and to what extent determinations of legal parenthood should be based on biological relationship, marriage to a child’s biological parent, or functioning as or intending to be a parent. In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court endorsed the claim that children whose parents are married are better off socially and legally than nonmarital children; its language could easily be taken to support legal rules that encourage or prefer childrearing within marriage. On the other hand, the Court’s argument assumes that the same-sex couple—both members—are …

Romantic Discrimination And Children, Solangel Maldonado

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In recent years, social scientists have used online dating sites to study the role of race in the dating and marriage market. This research has revealed a racialized and gendered hierarchy that disproportionately excludes African-Americans and Asian-American men. For decades, other researchers have studied the risks and outcomes for children who are raised in single-parent homes as compared to children raised by married parents.

Drawing on these studies, this Essay explores how racial preferences in the dating and marriage market potentially disadvantage the children of middle-class African-American women who lack or reject opportunities to intermarry relative to children of married …

Quacking Like A Duck? Functional Parenthood Doctrine And Same-Sex Parents, Katharine K. Baker

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article unpacks the relationship between the functional parenthood doctrine, constitutionally protected parental autonomy rights and intent-to-parent tests as they are applied in same-sex parenting relationships. It argues that, with the advent of same-sex marriage and second parent adoption, the functional parent doctrine is unnecessary and ultimately counterproductive to anyone interested in expanding legal recognition of non-traditional family forms. The functional parent doctrine asks courts to employ traditional understandings of parenthood (“Who acted like a parent?”) in assigning parental status.

These traditional understandings are usually, if not inevitably, dyadic, heteronormative, genetic, and gendered. In practice, the functional parent doctrine undermines …

Reforming The Processes For Challenging Voluntary Acknowledgments Of Paternity, Jeffrey A. Parness, David A. Saxe

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Voluntary acknowledgements of paternity (VAPs) significantly determine male legal parentage at birth for many children born of sex to unwed mothers in the United States. VAP processes are chiefly dictated by the federal Social Security Act, which places certain mandates on states participating in federally-subsidized welfare programs. These processes include norms on effective VAP establishments and on VAP disestablishments, either via early rescissions (within sixty days) by signatories or via later contests (after sixty days) by challengers, including signatories. The norms are driven by the Act’s desire to increase reimbursements of state child welfare payments from unwed fathers regardless of …

Judicial Discretion V. Predictable Outcomes: A Review Of The 2016 Amendments To The Illinois Marriage And Dissolution Of Marriage Act, David E. Braden

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In 2015, the Illinois General Assembly comprehensively amended the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (IMDMA). Illinois legislators cited a desire to increase predictable outcomes and to minimize adversarial litigation as primary goals for passing this overall to Illinois’s marriage and divorce law. This Comment evaluates how the amendments advance the stated legislative goals of increasing predictable outcomes and minimizing litigation while maintaining flexibility for fact-specific decision-making through judicial discretion. While the results are mixed, this Comment identifies changes in key provisions to which practicing attorneys should take note.

A Practical Solution To The Marriage Penalty, Margaret Ryznar

Pepperdine Law Review

In the federal income tax code, there is a marriage penalty resulting from tax brackets that do not double upon marriage. This marriage penalty persists despite universal condemnation of it, penalizing a significant portion of married women who work and many same-sex couples. This Article proposes a novel way to deal with this marriage penalty by creating a filing status for dual income couples that earn an amount within a particular percentage of each other. This filing status would be the same as the current married filing status, except it would double the rates of single filers by accommodating two …

The American Child Welfare System: The Inconspicuous Vehicle For Social Exclusion, Zachary Auspitz

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminalizing Pregnancy, Cortney Lollar

Indiana Law Journal

The state of Tennessee arrested a woman two days after she gave birth and charged her with assault of her newborn child based on her use of narcotics during her preg-nancy. Tennessee’s 2014 assault statute was the first to explicitly criminalize the use of drugs by a pregnant woman. But this law, along with others like it being considered by legislatures across the country, is only the most recent manifestation of a long history of using criminal law to punish poor mothers and mothers of color for their behavior while pregnant. The purported motivation for such laws is the harm …

The Polarization Of Reproductive And Parental Decision-Making, Jamie R. Abrams

Florida State University Law Review

Women’s abortion and parental decision-making in child rearing are constructed as polarized methods of decision-making in law, politics, and society. Women’s abortion decision-making is understood as myopic and individualistic. Parental decision-making is understood as sacrificial and selfless. This polarization leaves reproductive decision-making isolated, marginalized, and vulnerable while parental decision-making is essentialized, protected, and revered. Both framings are inaccurate and problematic. A unified family decision-making framework that aligns abortion decision-making and parental decision-making reveals that both forms of decision-making are more multi-dimensional, relational, and family-centered than currently understood. This Article exposes the ground to be gained by crossing longstanding boundaries in …

Dissenting From History: The False Narratives Of The Obergefell Dissents, Christopher R. Leslie

Indiana Law Journal

According to a quote attributed to numerous philosophers and political leaders, “History is written by victors.”1 In the legal battle over same-sex marriage, those opposed to marriage equality have attempted to disprove this age-old adage. In response to the majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges—which held that state laws banning same-sex marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment—each of the four dissenting Justices issued his own dissenting opinion. Every one of these dissents misrepresented the circumstances and precedent leading up to the Obergefell decision. Collectively, the Obergefell dissenters have valiantly tried to rewrite America’s legal, constitutional, and social history, all in an …

Case Law On American Indians: August 2015—August 2016, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Yours, Mine, Or Ours: Resolving Frozen Embryo Disputes Through Genetics, Carinne Jaeger

Seattle University Law Review

Part I of this Note provides some background on the current frameworks being used by courts in dual-progenitor disputes, while Part II presents the only two cases to deal with sole-genetic progenitor disputes and details how the courts conducted their analyses. Part III explains how courts establish legal parentage and how these legal parentage standards apply to frozen embryo disputes, specifically ones that involve only one genetic progenitor. Part IV proposes a new genetic framework to assist in the resolution of these issues. This Note concludes with a recommendation for future legislative intervention to aid in the widespread and uniform …

Adoption In China: Past, Present And Yet To Come, Margaret Ryznar

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

"Never Had A Choice And No Power To Alter": Illegitimate Children And The Supreme Court Of Japan, Shigenori Matsui

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A Case Against Collaboration, Rachel Rebouché

Maryland Law Review

In family law, as in other legal disciplines, the use of alternative dispute resolution has dramatically increased. In a process called collaborative divorce, separating spouses hire attorneys who agree to work together—almost entirely outside of the court system—to reach a settlement ending the marriage. A team of experts, including mental health professionals, financial neutrals, and parenting coordinators, helps the parties resolve conflicts and settle property, support, and custody disputes. For divorcing couples, the collaborative process promises emotional healing and avoidance of contentious litigation. Advocates for collaborative divorce describe the transformational effects of the process in an evangelical tone.

But collaborative …

Embry-Uh-Oh: An Alternative Approach To Frozen Embryo Disputes, Anna El-Zein

Missouri Law Review

This Note addresses the general background of domestic and international case law and legislation surrounding embryonic disputes. It then examines recent case law developments; specifically, it discusses the only existing frozen embryo dispute in Missouri. Finally, we offer a suggested approach for courts to use when addressing these increasingly complex cases.

Sieglein V. Schmidt: Securing The Legitimacy Of All Children Created Through Assisted Reproductive Technology, Gabrielle C. Phillips

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

In The "Best Interests" Of The Disabled: Legislating Morality And The Power To Initiate Support Orders For Disabled Adults In Ohio, Kalynne Proctor

Cleveland State Law Review

Today’s reality is that many families have children who are faced with disabling conditions that prevent them from relinquishing their dependency on others. Often, the need for specialized treatment and care does not terminate once a severely disabled child reaches adulthood. While typically parents are relieved of their legal parental obligations to their adult-aged children, this is not the same case for parents with severely disabled children. In some respects, Ohio has recognized the financial difficulties divorced parents face when they are the sole caregivers of disabled adult children. Although Ohio law requires that the noncustodial parent in a divorce …

Parental Abduction And The State Intervention Paradox, Jane K. Stoever

Washington Law Review

For most of America’s history, the common law deemed the family a “private sphere” into which the government did not enter. In recent decades, however, the state has increasingly regulated the family in overprotective and overly punitive ways. Many current state interventions in the family are misdirected, penalizing abuse victims and intervening in undesired ways that create harm while failing to respond to pleas for help. A prime area in which the state paradoxically remains laissez-faire concerns the phenomenon of parental abduction, a pervasive and devastating problem that has received scant attention due to the socio-legal focus on stranger danger. …

Find Out What It Means To Me: The Politics Of Respect And Dignity In Sexual Orientation Antidiscrimination, Jeremiah A. Ho

Utah Law Review

This Article considers the state of LGBTQ equality after the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Specifically, by examining this upsurge of social visibility for same-sex couples as both acceptance of sexual minorities and cultural assimilation, the Article finds that the marriage cases at the Supreme Court—Obergefell and United States v. Windsor—shifted the framing of gay rights from the politics of respect that appeared more than a decade ago in Lawrence v. Texas toward a politics of respectability. The Article traces this regression in Justice Kennedy’s own definition of dignity from Lawrence, where he approached the concept of dignity …

Workin’ 9:00–5:00 For Nine Months: Assessing Pregnancy Discrimination Laws In Georgia, Kaitlyn Pettet

Georgia State University Law Review

As demonstrated in this Note, there is still a considerable way to go before women are no longer forced to choose between pregnancy and keeping their career. Allegations of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace are also on the rise.

In 1997, 4,000 plaintiffs filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). By 2011, that number rose to 5,800. The EEOC won significant damages in pregnancy discrimination cases, demonstrating a greater tendency towards discrimination in the workplace. Additionally, this rise in claims and awards caught the attention of the nation’s media, placing new emphasis on the treatment of pregnant women …

Have Prenup, Will Travel: Why England’S Law On Marital Agreements Has Attracted Forum Shoppers And How The Courts Can Fight Back, Karina Vanhouten

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

This Note examines the English judiciary’s reluctance to fully accept marital agreements, and the disruptive effect this has in the global legal arena. In our increasingly international world, the fundamental events of family life—marriage, divorce, and death—often no longer occur in the same jurisdiction. In recent years, prospective divorcées from around the globe have flocked to England to take advantage of the country’s matrimonial law, which generally favors the party seeking to invalidate or minimize a marital agreement. This forum-shopping phenomenon is problematic because English courts regularly disregard foreign marital agreements that would be valid and binding in other jurisdictions, …

Exploring The Boundaries Of Obergefell, Andrew J. Pecoraro

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Moore V. City Of East Cleveland: How One Grandmother Helped A Nation Redefine Family, Anne Williams-Isom

Fordham Law Review

When reviewing the Moore v. City of East Cleveland decision, it is impossible not to see one of the grandmothers that Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) routinely encounters in Inez Moore. While educating children is the primary focus of HCZ, working with the adults who bring those children through the doors is important to HCZ’s success. Miss Inez, as she would have been referred to by HCZ, illustrates the important role played by extended families in communities of color.

Complex Kinship Networks In Fragile Families, Tonya L. Brito

Fordham Law Review

This Article examines the complex kinship networks in families that experience multiple-partner fertility. Part I begins with a broad examination of the dramatic changes to the American family that have occurred over the past half century. Part I then highlights the broad diversity of forms present in today’s families, the evolving nature of American families, and how a two-tiered family system has emerged as patterns have diverged along class-based lines. Next, Part II turns to multiple-partner fertility, assessing what we know and do not know about this social phenomenon, including its prevalence, characteristics, and trends. Part III then addresses the …

Reflections On The Challenge Of Inez Moore: Family Integrity In The Wake Of Mass Incarceration, Ann Cammett

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court case Moore v. City of East Cleveland has long been celebrated as affirming constitutional rights related to family integrity. The Moore holding specifically confirmed the Court’s obligation to scrutinize housing ordinances that regulate a traditional family’s household composition. By comparison and extension, one might assume that alternative family formations would trigger similar scrutiny, but the Court has been loath to extend these protections. Apart from the Court’s failure to increase protections beyond traditional extended families, an interesting phenomenon has gone largely unexplored in this jurisprudential framework. In the wake of late twentieth-century mass incarceration, lawmakers and …

Moore’S Potential, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn

Fordham Law Review

Part I of this Article briefly explores the culture wars that have consumed American politics since Moore. Part II discusses Moore’s uneasy position within the conception of family as a matter of choice versus tradition. Then, to the extent that the Moore Court addressed the changing family, Part III shows how it did so by treating the extended family as a manifestation of traditional family values, not the newly emerging substantive family values that valorize delay in childbearing and financial independence. Finally, Part IV considers Moore's missed opportunities to examine the relationship between family form, race, and …