Law Commons^™

Do You Swear To Tell The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth Against Your Child?, Hillary B. Farber

Faculty Publications

Currently in the United States there is no federally recognized parent-child privilege. The U.S. Supreme Court has never granted certiorari in a case involving the recognition of a parent-child privilege. For many, it is a revelation to learn that the government can compel testimony about communications and observations between parents and their children. Scholars have written about the social policy implications caused by the lack of parent–child privilege. In spite of these thoughtful policy-based arguments, neither Congress nor forty-six state legislatures have responded by recognizing even a limited form of a parent-child privilege. This Article singles out one specific context …

A Review Of What's Wrong With Children's Rights: Still A "Slogan In Search Of A Definition", Justine A. Dunlap

Faculty Publications

The negative side of government intervention on behalf of children is a primary focus of New York University Law Professor Martin Guggenheim's book What's Wrong with Children's Rights. In this interesting book, Professor Guggenheim is always instructive and often provocative. As a consequence, he has written a book worth reading.

This book review essay will begin by offering an overall assessment of the book. It will then analyze two separate components of Guggenheim's book. First, it will evaluate Guggenheim's assertion that, absent a demonstration of parental unfitness, parental decision-making regarding their children is "virtually immune from state oversight." Second, …

What Process Is Due?: Unaccompanied Minors' Rights To Deportation Hearings, Irene Scharf, Christine Hess

Faculty Publications

Thousands of foreign-born children enter the United States every year. Many, particularly those crossing at the Mexican border, arrive without legal immigration status and unaccompanied by adults. Once here, these children have certain rights under the Constitution and the immigration laws of this country. Their primary right is to a deportation hearing. Under the current procedures used by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), however, these children are encouraged to waive that right and "elect" voluntary departure. The voluntary departure process requires that they admit to having entered the country illegally, choose the country to which they will return, and leave …

How Are You Going To Keep Them Down On The (Collective) Farm After They’Ve Seen Chicago?: A Minor’S Right To Political Asylum Against His Parents’ Wishes, Michael G. Hillinger

Faculty Publications

“Children’s rights” is a nebulous phrase subsuming two very different issues: the extent to which children can assert the same rights against the state as adults, and the extent to which the state can limit a parent’s power over his child. In cases involving the issue of children’s rights , the Supreme Court has defined those rights in a relatively restrictive fashion. On the one hand, the Supreme Court has recognized that children have constitutional rights independent of those enjoyed by their parents. On the other hand, it has frequently held those rights to be either less than those afforded …