Family Law Commons^™

Gardner’S Zombie: Parental Alienation Syndrome, Parental Alienation, And The Threat Both Present To Rhode Island, Grant E. Mooney

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comment On Part 4 Essays: Goodwin And Dailey And Rosenbury, Elizabeth S. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

Professors Michelle Goodwin and Anne Dailey and President Laura Rosenbury have written two compelling essays on Part 4 of the Restatement of Children and the Law, dealing with Children in Society. Goodwin’s essay, She’s So Exceptional: Rape and Incest Exceptions Post-Dobbs, focuses on § 19.02 of the Restatement, dealing with the right of minors to reproductive health treatments. This Section was approved by the American Law Institute before the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade. In her essay, Goodwin explores the harms that will follow if minors’ right of access …

The Harm Of "Nothing Burgers", Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

Child protective services (CPS) agencies subject a wide scope of families to investigation, and the vast majority do not lead to family separations or family court cases. A 2017 study, for instance, showing that 37% of all children and 53% of Black children are the subject of CPS investigations in their childhoods, has now been cited hundreds of times. Kelley Fong’s new book, Investigating Families, is based on the months she spent embedded with CPS investigators responding to allegations that parents abused or (more often) neglected their children, and the interviews she conducted with both investigators and the parents …

Domestic Supply (A Feminist Proposal), Jennifer S. Hendricks

Publications

No abstract provided.

Correcting Contradiction: Limiting License Suspension As A Child Support Enforcement Mechanism In Pennsylvania, Robin Platte

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In many communities across Pennsylvania, maintaining employment without a driver’s license is extremely difficult. Section 4355 of the Pennsylvania Domestic Relations Code authorizes license suspension as a means to encourage child support payments. Unfortunately, license suspensions rarely result in obligors making payments. Instead, suspensions often lead to loss of employment and financial insecurity. Under Section 4355, if an obligor falls three months behind in child support payments, their professional, recreational, and driver’s licenses may be suspended indefinitely. Coincidentally, the obligor’s actual ability to pay may not be considered in a pre-suspension hearing. Even those who fall far below the national …

Intentional Parenthood, Contingent Fetal Personhood, And The Right To Reproductive Self-Determination, Laura Hermer

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article argues that intent should govern legal parenthood, regardless of the method of conception, the person’s biological or genetic relationship to the resulting embryo/fetus, or the person’s gender. This proposition is not new. This Article adds to scholarly discourse by extending the concept: Intent should not just determine parenthood, but also fetal rights. When a pregnant person establishes their procreational intent (or lack thereof) prior to birth, then both the existence (or lack thereof) of legal protections for the embryo/fetus and the gestator’s rights and duties (or lack thereof) should flow from this intent. Non-gestating gamete contributors would do …

It's More Than Just A Family Issue: A Global Analysis Of Parentage Assumption Law In Relation To Surrogacy, Jordan Chrispell

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Carrie-Ing On: Advancing Justice For Disabled Parents After Colorado’S Carrie Ann Lucas Parental Rights For People With Disabilities Act, Sarah M. Morris

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Consumer’S Choice To Boycott, Agnes Bresee

Seattle University Law Review

In the wake of employees losing their jobs upon voicing their political opinions concerning Israel, Harvard and Columbia law students’ job offers being rescinded upon expressing support for Palestine, and the names and social media profiles of individuals who support Palestine being collected and listed on Canary Mission, such backlash may leave many Americans wondering what form of resistance to settler-colonialist apartheid is acceptable in the twenty-first century. Recently, the movement to collectively boycott brands like Starbucks, which sued its Worker’s Union for a tweet expressing support for Palestine; Disney, which donated money to Israel; and McDonald’s, where a location …

A Different Approach To Agency Theory And Implications For Esg, Jonathan Bonham, Amoray Riggs-Cragun

Seattle University Law Review

In conventional agency theory, the agent is modeled as exerting unobservable “effort” that influences the distribution over outcomes the principal cares about. Recent papers instead allow the agent to choose the entire distribution, an assumption that better describes the extensive and flexible control that CEOs have over firm outcomes. Under this assumption, the optimal contract rewards the agent directly for outcomes the principal cares about, rather than for what those outcomes reveal about the agent’s effort. This article briefly summarizes this new agency model and discusses its implications for contracting on ESG activities.

Overseeing The Administrative State, Jill E. Fisch

Seattle University Law Review

In a series of recent cases, the Supreme Court has reduced the regulatory power of the Administrative State. Pending cases offer vehicles for the Court to go still further. Although the Court’s skepticism of administrative agencies may be rooted in Constitutional principles or political expediency, this Article explores another possible explanation—a shift in the nature of agencies and their regulatory role. As Pritchard and Thompson detail in their important book, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court was initially skeptical of agency power, jeopardizing Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)’s ambitious New Deal plan. The Court’s acceptance …

The Sec, The Supreme Court, And The Administrative State, Paul G. Mahoney

Seattle University Law Review

Pritchard and Thompson have given those of us who study the SEC and the securities laws much food for thought. Their methodological focus is on the internal dynamics of the Court’s deliberations, on which they have done detailed and valuable work. The Court did not, however, operate in a vacuum. Intellectual trends in economics and law over the past century can also help us understand the SEC’s fortunes in the federal courts and make predictions about its future.

A Hard Pill To Swallow: The Abysmal Mental Health Standards Of Detained Immigrant Children In The United States, Rama Bankesly

Seattle University Law Review

After setting foot into the U.S., unaccompanied children must learn to navigate academic and legal systems while receiving little support and carrying the heavy burden of effects of trauma on their mental health. They need access to mental health care from qualified professionals, but as this Comment will explain, they systematically fail to receive care, as can be seen in cases like Doe v. Shenandoah Valley Juv. Ctr. Comm’n. In Shenandoah, an unaccompanied child arrived in the U.S. and was placed in a facility that failed to provide remotely adequate mental health care and in fact was subjected …

Centering Students’ Rights In Our Democracy: A Case Study From Maryland’S Eastern Shore, Samantha C. Pownall

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Students For Fair Admissions: Affirming Affirmative Action And Shapeshifting Towards Cognitive Diversity?, Steven A. Ramirez

Seattle University Law Review

The Roberts Court holds a well-earned reputation for overturning Supreme Court precedent regardless of the long-standing nature of the case. The Roberts Court knows how to overrule precedent. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), the Court’s majority opinion never intimates that it overrules Grutter v. Bollinger, the Court’s leading opinion permitting race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Instead, the Roberts Court applied Grutter as authoritative to hold certain affirmative action programs entailing racial preferences violative of the Constitution. These programs did not provide an end point, nor did they require assessment, review, periodic expiration, or revision for greater …

Applying Strict Scrutiny In Termination Of Parental Rights Proceedings: Why Alabama’S Jurisprudence Should Reshape Child Protection Practice, Christopher Church, Vivek Sankaran

Articles

“Our decision in [Pierce] holds that parents have a fundamental constitutional right to rear their children . . . . I would apply strict scrutiny to infringements of fundamental rights.” “[S]trict scrutiny leaves few survivors.” Termination of parental rights (TPR) stands as “a unique kind of deprivation” that results in the state irrevocably severing a parent’s fundamental right to care for their child. In The Ties that Bind Us, we scrutinized the child protection system’s overuse of TPR, employing clinical, empirical, and constitutional perspectives. This Article advocates for a constitutionally anchored framework aimed at enforcing strict scrutiny when considering TPR …

The Intersection Of Special Education And Family Law: Thoughts For Family Law Attorneys In Divorce And Custody Cases, Richard D. Marsico

Articles & Chapters

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires participating states to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to children with disabilities. The IDEA gives parents of children with disabilities significant rights and major responsibilities in developing and maintaining their child’s education. Getting the most out of the IDEA for their children requires parents to commit substantial time and financial resources that are difficult to provide in the best circumstances. When parents are having marital difficulties, separated, undergoing a divorce, or negotiating child custody, these difficulties can be exacerbated as parents navigate the intersection of the federal IDEA and state …

Family Law And Children’S Educational Rights: Introduction & Acknowledgements, Lisa Grumet

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Set Up To Fail: Disabled Parents In The Family Regulation System, Sarah H. Lorr

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Clause Challenges To Early Abortion Bans, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

The substantive due process right to abortion is gone. But other parts of the Constitution may also protect women’s right to control their bodies and live as equals in the United States. This Essay addresses what role the two religion clauses may play in advancing reproductive autonomy. Because religion and reproduction are intertwined, the religion clauses may provide some measure of constitutional protection.

The Establishment Clause bars the government from imposing religion onto those who do not share it. It also forbids the government from taking sides in theological disputes. Early abortion bans not only favor one religious belief on …

Reconciling Domestic Violence Protections And The Second Amendment, Natalie Nanasi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In March of 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that individuals subject to domestic violence protective orders could not be required to give up their guns. The decision was the first of a federal court to overturn a firearm regulation pursuant to New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a 2022 Supreme Court opinion that created a new standard for determining the constitutionality of gun restrictions. After Bruen, only laws that are “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation” pass constitutional muster.

The Fifth’s Circuit decision in U.S. v. Rahimi, which …

Repairing The Family Law Attorney, Daniel F. Bousquet

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Professor Clare Huntington’s scholarship advances a theoretical “Reparative Model” of family law that seeks to deemphasize adversarial decision-making and decrease litigation. Building off that scholarship, this Article considers the family law attorney’s role and argues that the current Model Rules of Professional Conduct already support—and should be understood to require—a “reparative” advisory role for the family law attorney. Put simply, the harsh realities of the adversarial court system demand that family law attorneys presumptively provide information on litigation’s harmful impacts on families and children and encourage the possibility of pursuing goals via means less detrimental than litigation. To encourage a …

The Act For Collaborative Law, Sun Kim

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Collaborative law is an alternative dispute resolution method that helps families across the world divorce cooperatively and amicably, but it faces critiques for its unique practices, such as automatic, mandatory disqualification of attorneys for failure to reach settlement agreements. To withstand critiques and remain a successful alternative dispute resolution method, collaborative law should be codified. Hence, all states should adopt the Uniform Collaborative Law Act (UCLA). The UCLA demystifies the practice of collaborative law and establishes a reliable framework that sets critiques of collaborative law to rest. This Comment explains the key provisions of the UCLA and discusses how the …

From Margins To Center: Elevating The Voices Of Disadvantaged Families In Child Welfare, Jerron R. Wheeler

Faculty Articles

This essay sheds light on the systemic challenges faced by indigent, minority families within the child welfare system, using personal experiences from my time as a student at the University of Florida Levin College of Law as a lens. This essay aims to highlight the intersection of poverty, race, and the child welfare system, showing how these factors can hinder parents' ability to reunite with their children despite their best efforts. The essay seeks to underscore the urgent need for a more nuanced, multidisciplinary approach to child welfare advocacy that includes legal professionals, social workers, and health professionals working collaboratively …

Using Education To Confidently Identify And Report Concerns Of Child Abuse And Neglect: A Qualitative Improvement Initiative Through Staff Development, Sarah E. Neilson

Master's Theses and Capstones

BACKGROUND: Pre-licensure education on child abuse and neglect is crucial for nurses in the healthcare field. It helps to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively identify, report, and intervene in cases of child abuse and neglect. Having this education available and understanding the signs and effects of child abuse and neglect, empowers nurses to take quick and decisive action in early intervention and prevention. Within the microsystem of a local Operating Room (OR), this quality improvement (QI) project will determine the muchneeded addition to the healthcare curriculum.

METHODS: The Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) framework was …

Freedom On Paper: Reforms To Women’S Rights In Saudi Arabia Will Not Be Effective Until Male Guardianship Is Abolished, Mackenzie Kramer

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Male guardianship, a societal custom derived from Islamic law, renders women in Saudi Arabia second class citizens. The country’s preservation of male guardianship has broken its agreement to adhere to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the leading international women’s rights treaty. Throughout the past decade the country’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman al Saud (“MbS”), has issued rulings that work to slowly dismantle the apparatus of male guardianship. These developments have been both meaningful and restrained; MbS attempts to tread lightly into human rights reforms to garner the support of western allies, …

Case Law On American Indians: October 2022 - August 2023, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Difference Method Makes: Judicial Restraint And Judicial Creativity In Rana Nahid V Sahidul Chisti, Saptarshi Mandal

National Law School Journal

Restraint and creativity are both necessary judicial attitudes. But when should judges exercise restraint in adjudication and when, creativity? This is the question posed by the Supreme Court’s 2020 split verdict in the case of Rana Nahid v Sahidul Chisti, which required the Court to decide whether Family Courts had jurisdiction over maintenance claims under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. By contrasting the two approaches taken by the judges to statutory interpretation in this case, the note argues that while judges should refrain from arbitrary rule making, creativity must be viewed as duty when …

Locating The 'Nanny' In Legal Theory, Akshat Agarwal

National Law School Journal

Paid domestic workers pose a challenge to legal theorists since they occupy the unique intersection of the market and the home. While being paid for the ‘care’ they provide, their work is characterised by a high degree of informality and is usually also considered emotive. I use India as a case study to show how attempts to include paid domestic workers within formal labour law protections have been consistently unsuccessful, which demonstrates the unique nature of paid domestic work. At the same time, academic arguments for the inclusion of such workers in family law frameworks raise several practical concerns and …

The Reality Of Assisted Reproductive Technology: A Call For The Prohibition Of Donor Anonymity, Gisell Mondragon

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.