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Full-Text Articles in Law
Consideration Of Genetic Connections In Child Custody Disputes Between Same-Sex Parents: Fair Or Foul?, Jessica Feinberg
Consideration Of Genetic Connections In Child Custody Disputes Between Same-Sex Parents: Fair Or Foul?, Jessica Feinberg
Missouri Law Review
Historically, in child custody disputes involving same-sex couples who conceived their children through assisted reproductive technology, the law only recognized the relationship between the child and the member of the same-sex couple who was the child’s genetic parent. Consequently, non-genetic parents in these situations were frequently denied standing to seek custody or visitation following the dissolution of their relationship with the child’s genetic parent. Due to recent legal advancements, however, it is becoming far more common for both members of a same-sex couple to be legally recognized as the parents of a child conceived through assisted reproductive technology. Unfortunately, despite …
Fundamental, But Not Fundamental Enough: Missouri's Balancing Test In The Area Of Parental Rights, Nichole Walsch
Fundamental, But Not Fundamental Enough: Missouri's Balancing Test In The Area Of Parental Rights, Nichole Walsch
Missouri Law Review
In Weigand, the petitioner argued that the statute infringed on his due process and equal protection rights to the care, custody and control of his child and that it violated the open courts provision of the Missouri Constitution. This Note argues that the "balancing-of-interests" test applied by the Supreme Court of Missouri does not give parental rights the heightened scrutiny they deserve. In addition, the balancing test is problematic because it is extremely subjective and leaves the decision of constitutionality entirely up to judicial discretion. This Note also suggests that the court failed to give full weight to the procedural …
In Re N.L.B. V. Lentz: The Missouri Supreme Court's Unwarranted Extension Of A Putative Father's Constitutional Protections, Lauren Standlee
In Re N.L.B. V. Lentz: The Missouri Supreme Court's Unwarranted Extension Of A Putative Father's Constitutional Protections, Lauren Standlee
Missouri Law Review
In Lentz, the Missouri Supreme Court granted an unwed father leave to intervene in an adoption, despite the fact that he had failed to bring himself into the realm of constitutionally protected putative fathers. This note explains why the holding of the Lentz court subverted the intent of Missouri's adoption statutes and its putative father registry, and argues that an unwed biological father who has not filed a valid paternity action, registered with the putative father registry, or demonstrated a substantial commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood should not be entitled to the additional constitutional protections available to diligent putative …
Premarital Agreements And Choice Of Law: One, Two, Three, Baby, You And Me, Julia Halloran Mclaughlin
Premarital Agreements And Choice Of Law: One, Two, Three, Baby, You And Me, Julia Halloran Mclaughlin
Missouri Law Review
Part II of this article presents an overview of premarital agreement rules related to procedural and substantive fairness. Part III examines the relationship between the Restatement (First) of Conflict of Laws (hereinafter Restatement (First)) and the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws (hereinafter Restatement (Second)), with a specific focus on the ability of parties to contractually predetermine controlling law in relationship to marital rights and obligations before they marry. Part IV analyzes the choice of law provision in the UPAA. Part V synthesizes the existing judicial treatment of choice of law provisions in premarital agreements in jurisdictions applying the Restatement …
Does Loss Of Custody Of A Child Resulting From Attorney Negligence Cause Damage, Jesse E. Weisshaar
Does Loss Of Custody Of A Child Resulting From Attorney Negligence Cause Damage, Jesse E. Weisshaar
Missouri Law Review
Attorneys face the prospect of legal malpractice actions on a daily basis and in regard to every type of legal issue with which they deal. Indeed, a lawyer's negligence subjects him to liability whether he has mishandled a multimillion dollar business transaction or failed to adequately represent his client in a custody battle over the client's children. Whereas the harm in the former example is clearly monetary, the latter example presents the issue of whether the client can recover monetary damages for loss of custody of his child, a harm that is non-economic in nature. While few people would likely …
Policy Of Family Privacy: Uncovering The Bias In Favor Of Nuclear Families In American Consitutional Law And Policy Reform, The, Richard F. Storrow
Policy Of Family Privacy: Uncovering The Bias In Favor Of Nuclear Families In American Consitutional Law And Policy Reform, The, Richard F. Storrow
Missouri Law Review
This Article re-examines the landmark cases comprising the backbone of the family privacy doctrine and discloses, within the folds of their rhetoric of individual liberty, a policy of privacy promoting nuclear families. The re-examination of the landmark cases in Part II demonstrates that the policy of family privacy is to foster the creation and longevity of traditional, nuclear families. Part II illustrates how this policy has become more clearly articulated over time through the Court’s restrictive interpretation of fundamental rights and its recent decision in Troxel v. Granville, the much-awaited ruling on grandparental visitation rights. In Part III, this Article …
Daddy, Will You Buy Me A College Education--Children Of Divorce And The Constitutional Implications Of Noncustodial Parents Providing For Higher Education, Lindsay E. Cohen
Daddy, Will You Buy Me A College Education--Children Of Divorce And The Constitutional Implications Of Noncustodial Parents Providing For Higher Education, Lindsay E. Cohen
Missouri Law Review
It is not surprising that in an age when obtaining a college education has become increasingly popular and necessary, litigation involving the responsibility of parents to pay for or contribute to the costs of their child’s college education has also increased. This Note discusses the controversial issues of whether a parent has such an obligation and whether this obligation extends to noncustodial divorced parents. The results of much of the litigation throughout the United States on this topic vary greatly depending on the facts and circumstances of each case. In order to fully comprehend the current litigation involving noncustodial divorced …
Partial Privatization Of Social Security: Assessing Its Effect On Women, Minorities, And Lower-Income Workers, Kathryn L. Moore
Partial Privatization Of Social Security: Assessing Its Effect On Women, Minorities, And Lower-Income Workers, Kathryn L. Moore
Missouri Law Review
This Article explains why partial privatization would likely have a disproportionately adverse effect on the benefits of three specific subpopulations: women, minorities, and lower-income workers. The Article focuses on these three groups principally because they are at a heightened risk of poverty in old age.' Since one of the fundamental purposes of Social Security is to provide for progressive redistribution to lift the elderly out of poverty, policymakers should be (and are)' concerned with how Social Security reform would likely affect these subpopulations.' Of course, not all women and minorities are at heightened risk of poverty in old age.' s …
Assessing The Best Interests Of The Child: Missouri Declares That A Homosexual Parent Is Not Ipso Facto Unfit For Custody, Heidi C. Doerhoff
Assessing The Best Interests Of The Child: Missouri Declares That A Homosexual Parent Is Not Ipso Facto Unfit For Custody, Heidi C. Doerhoff
Missouri Law Review
In formal child custody disputes, the voices of those at the center of the controversy, the children, are rarely heard.Their parents, who otherwise are presumed to act in their best interests, battle one another in legal proceedings that reward the parent who more persuasively portrays the deficiencies of the other's parenting skills. Because the children, especially the very young, have no adequate basis for making judgments about their long-term well-being, the state acts asparenspatriae while their parents are adversaries.Through its laws and decision makers, the state attempts to ensure that the final custody arrangement is guided by the best interests …
Switched At The Fertility Clinic: Determining Maternal Rights When A Child Is Born From Stolen Or Misdelivered Genetic Material, Alice M. Noble-Allgire
Switched At The Fertility Clinic: Determining Maternal Rights When A Child Is Born From Stolen Or Misdelivered Genetic Material, Alice M. Noble-Allgire
Missouri Law Review
In the beginning, they were one of the happy statistics from a California fertility clinic. Among the twenty percent of infertile couples whose treatments resulted in a successful pregnancy,1 they were doubly blessed, in fact, with twins.' Six years later, however, a letter in the mailbox turned their lives upside down. Although apologetic in tone, the letter suggested that the unthinkable had occurred and requested that the twins be submitted for genetic testing to determine whether they were born from another woman's eggs.3
Federal Jurisdiction Over Juveniles: Who Decides , Alicia K. Embley
Federal Jurisdiction Over Juveniles: Who Decides , Alicia K. Embley
Missouri Law Review
Because of the increase in the number and severity of violent crimes committed by juveniles, public demand for harsher penalties and proceedings for young offenders also increases each year.2 Congress has responded to the public outcry by enacting numerous pieces of legislation that mandate federal juvenile accountability. This legislation represents a drastic departure from the federal government's traditional policy of leaving juvenile justice affairs to the states. One of the many congressional acts in the past decades confers federal jurisdiction upon prosecution of juveniles who commit serious violent or drug related crimes if the United States Attorney certifies that the …
Child Support In Missouri: The Father's Duty, The Child's Right And The Mother's Ability To Enforce, Gerald D. Mcbeth
Child Support In Missouri: The Father's Duty, The Child's Right And The Mother's Ability To Enforce, Gerald D. Mcbeth
Missouri Law Review
An obligation exists between father and child, the father having a duty to provide support, and the child having the right to receive support from his father. The enforceability of the obligation, however, does not run in a parallel manner. In Worthington v. Worthington, a guardian acting in behalf of seven minor children attempted to enforce the children's right of support against their father; the St. Louis Court of Appeals affirmed the father's demurrer. The court held that even though the father's duty to support his children was a legal duty, no cause of action is recognized in the children …