Family Law Commons^™

A Critical Analysis Of Constitutional Claims For Same-Sex Marriage, Lynn D. Wardle

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

People V. Bennett: Analytic Approaches To Recognizing A Fundamental Parental Right Under The Ninth Amendment, Daniel E. Witte

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Intercountry Adoption: A Need For Mandatory Medical Screening, Darya P. Jeffreys

Journal of Law and Health

Despite the numerous benefits of intercountry adoption, most families do not consider the possible health ramifications. Since adoptive parents are unsuspecting of ailments associated with foreign countries, a complete pediatric examination is a must after receiving the foreign adoptee. Such a pediatric examination will be effective when it is uniform and thorough, but without such an examination both parents and physicians remain in the dark about the child's health. Congress ought to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to require a standard pediatric examination for all foreign adoptees, regardless of the country of origin, as a condition to approval …

Step Up Or Step Out: Unwed Fathers' Parental Rights Post-Doe And E. A. W., John E. Fennelly

St. Thomas Law Review

The issue of parental rights for unwed fathers continues to generate confusion and controversy. The United States Supreme Court, following an initial period of expansion, has reduced its constitutional oversight of state domestic relations law. This reduction has produced a dynamic redefinition of the parental rights of unwed fathers. Uncertainties, as reflected in recent Florida appellate decisions, remain. This Article will first trace the initial expansion and contraction of federal oversight into the area of parental rights. The Article will then explore the redefinition of these rights as developed by several state jurisdictions. Next, recent Florida developments that demonstrate that …

Day Care And Parental Employment: What Weight Should They Be Given In Child Custody Disputes, Debra L. Swank

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

A Spouse's Right To Control Assets During Marriage: Is North Carolina Living In The Middle Ages?, The Honorable K. Edward Greene

Campbell Law Review

Under the modern concept of marriage, a husband and wife are generally thought of as equal partners, and the wife is generally no longer thought to be under the domination of her husband. Ironically, this concept of treating a husband and wife as a partnership is reflected upon divorce in North Carolina's equitable distribution laws, but is not entirely reflected during the intact marriage, especially with regard to issues of property management.

Second-Parent Adoption: Overcoming Barriers To Lesbian Family Rights, Maxwell S. Peltz

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Part I of this Article will discuss some of the legal difficulties associated with co-parenting and why lesbian couples have sought second-parent adoptions. Part II will examine the particular statutory obstacles to second-parent adoptions and then analyze the various ways courts in several states have overcome these obstacles. Finally, Part III will discuss the implications of these decisions in terms of their creation of legal and social norms.

Damned For Using Daycare: Appellate Brief Of Jennifer Ireland In Ireland V. Smith, Julie Kunce Field

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

At issue is custody of three-and-a-half-year-old Maranda (date of birth: April 22, 1991). The trial court found that Maranda had an established custodial environment with her mother, Jennifer Ireland, but then nominally ordered custody changed to Steven Smith. The court's order changing custody was based on a determination that day care is an inappropriate choice for care of a preschool child, and that no one effectively can be a single parent and a student at the same time. Those findings have no factual basis in the record, no legal basis under Michigan law, and no logical or even common sense …

Husband And Wife Are One - Him: Bennis V. Michigan As The Resurrection Of Coverture, Amy D. Ronner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Although the legal fictions of coverture and guilty property have been repudiated by statutes and the Court respectively, the Supreme Court implicitly resurrected and fused the coverture and guilty property myths in Bennis v. Michigan. In that decision, the Court approved the forfeiture of Ms. Bennis' interest in a car in which her husband engaged in sexual activity with a prostitute. This Article explores that resurrected conglomerate in three parts. Part I is a concise review of the feudal doctrine of coverture and the disabilities it imposed on married women. Part II focuses almost entirely on the decision in …

The Deliberate Contruction Of Families Without Fathers: Is It An Option For Lesbian And Heterosexual Mothers, Nancy Polikoff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Flesh Of My Flesh But Not My Heir: Unintended Disinheritance, Laura M. Padilla

Faculty Scholarship

This article briefly explains how the laws of intestacy and adoption work together, providing background information on second parent adoptions. It then describes why these laws are inadequate for same sex partners who adopt each others' children. It is impractical to cover statutes throughout the United States, and because I seek legal reform in California, this article focuses on California statutes, with occasional reference to the Uniform Probate Code. However, the problems caused by California's statutes also arise in other states with similar statutes. Therefore, the issues raised in this article, as well as the solutions proposed, are relevant in …

Innocent Spouses, Reasonable Women And Divorce: The Gap Between Reality And The Internal Revenue Code, Stephen A. Zorn

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article asks whether the "reasonable woman" should become the standard for women seeking relief from tax liabilities under the innocent spouse provision of the I.R.C. and whether an even more specific standard should be adopted for women who are also going through divorce or are in similar situations.

Protecting Our Children: A Call To Reform State Policies To Hold Pregnant Drug Addicts Accountable, 29 J. Marshall L. Rev. 765 (1996), Julie J. Zitella

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standards Of Appellate Review For Denial Of Counsel And Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel In Child Protection And Parental Severance Cases, William Wesley Patton

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Secrecy And Genetics In Adoption Law And Practice, Demosthenes A. Lorandos

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Color-Coordinated Families: Race Matching In Adoption In The United States And Britain, Anjana Bahl

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Law And The Stability Of Marriage: The Family As A Social Institution, Carl E. Schneider

Book Chapters

Samuel Johnson once wrote, "It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilized society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together." In this chapter I shall pursue Dr. Johnson's provocative suggestion by asking what restraints (if any) society might impose through law on couples to join them in marriage in the first place and to keep them in it after they have married.

But why might society …

Welfare Reform And Child Care: A Proposal For State Legislation, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

The shortage of subsidized child care creates three problems. First, it contributes to underemployment because job options are greatly reduced when child care is unavailable. Second, it erodes the wages of parents who do work because low-income families spend a debilitating percentage of their earnings to pay for the care of their children. Third, it relegates many children to poor quality child care settings, compromising their academic potential and social well-being, and placing them at risk for delinquency and dependency. Part I of this article discusses the current paucity of quality, affordable child care, and the effects of this shortage. …

Constitutionally Defending Marriage: The Defense Of Marriage Act, Romer V. Evans And The Cultural Battle They Represent, Leonard G. Brown Iii

Campbell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Give Them A Sword: Representing Parents In Child Custody Cases, William Tabac

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

First, this Essay demonstrates that, because the "best interests" standard that states use in awarding custody between parents is so arbitrary, lawyers cannot effectively protect the parental rights of their clients. Next, this Essay contends that, because fit parents will do anything to preserve their bond with their children, the state not only expects them to commit perjury to protect their parental rights, but encourages them to do so. Finally, this Essay argues that lawyers should lay out all possible strategies to their clients even if doing so invites parents to perjure themselves.

Parents' Rights Vs. Childrens' Interest: The Case Of The Foster Child, Marsha Garrison

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lochner For Women: The Ideology Of Separate Spheres In Muller V. Oregon, Anne Dailey

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Give Them A Sword: Representing A Parent In A Child Custody Case, William Louis Tabac

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Notes: Limitations On Who May Adopt: A Natural Mother May Not Adopt Her Own Natural Children Notwithstanding The Consent Of The Natural Father And The Children. Green V. Sollenberger, 338 Md. 118, 656 A.2d 773 (1995), Jennifer R. Terrasa

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uniform Adoption Act's Health Disclosure Provisions: A Model That Should Not Be Overlooked, Marianne Blair

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Separating From Children, Carol Sanger

Faculty Scholarship

On September 1, 1939, in anticipation of the imminent German bombing of British cities, 150,000 children were assembled at the railway stations of London and sent throughout the day to "'destinations unknown'" in the English countryside. Mothers and children under five were evacuated together but school-age children were shipped out to rural billets in school groups, accompanied only by their teachers and civil defense volunteers. Forty years later, an observer remembered the day vividly:

[T]he mothers [were] trying to hold back their tears as they marched these little boys and girls in their gas masks into the centre …. The …

God Bless The Child: Poor Children, Parens Patriae, And A State Obligation To Provide Assistance, Kay P. Kindred

Scholarly Works

In this Article, I argue that poor parents who are willing, but economically unable, to provide proper care for their children are entitled to some minimum level of state assistance grounded in the constitutional right to family integrity. The right to family integrity, when coupled with the state's power as parens patride, creates an affirmative obligation on the state to provide income assistance to impoverished families when necessary to protect the welfare of the children and maintain the family intact.

Welfare Reform, The Child Care Dilemma, And The Tax Code: Family Values, The Wage Labor Market, And The Race-And-Class-Based Double Standard, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

In the winter of 1996, Steve Forbes--publisher, heir, and presidential candidate--captured the American imagination with his proposal for a flat tax. But while Mr. Forbes claimed that such a tax would level the economic playing field by eliminating countless loopholes and miles of red tape, his actual proposal betrayed such claims to fairness by overtaxing workers and undertaxing financial capital.

In the face of recent proposals for dramatic and far-reaching tax reform, Taxing America takes a critical look at the way the federal government collects its revenue and exposes the bias at the heart of a system which claims to …

Bottoms V. Bottoms: In Whose Best Interest? Analysis Of A Lesbian Mother Child Custody Dispute, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

This Article traces and analyzes the series of legal and factual events leading up to the Virginia Supreme Court's contradictory and controversial decision in Bottoms v. Bottoms.