Family Law Commons^™

Safer Futures: Strategies For Enhancing Collaboration Between Law Enforcement And Child Welfare Agencies In Preventing Fatal Child Abuse, Kayla M. Brown

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

"May It Please Her Honor": The United States' First Women Judges, 1870-1930, Elizabeth D. Katz

UF Law Faculty Publications

Between 1870 and 1930, hundreds of women served as judges in the United States. While a small number compared to the men who served, these pathbreaking officials were particularly visible and influential in women's efforts to secure political rights and advance in the legal profession. Women's progress in obtaining judgeships developed in a regional pattern, with women in the Midwest and West able to secure earlier and broader jurisdiction positions than their counterparts in the Northeast and South. Seeking access to the judiciary, women in conservative states made gendered arguments about women's supposed superiority in overseeing cases involving women, children, …

Adopted Into Debt?, Grace Palcic

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

While adoption procedures differ from state to state, every state uses some variation of the best interest of the child standard to determine the outcome of an adoption proceeding. To gather information for the best interest determination, states have created the home study process to investigate prospective adoptive families. A home study allows social workers and/or private adoption agencies to look at the needs of the child, the ability of the parents to care for the child, the existing familial dynamics, the safety of the physical home, the perceived moral character and reputation of the parents, mental and physical health …

A Call For Trained, Trauma-Informed Attorneys To Represent And Support Unaccompanied Children In Removal Proceedings By Petitioning For Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Will Sheehan

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mired In Meyer'S Mischief A Century After Fabrication Of Constitutional Parents' Rights, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The seminal Supreme Court decisions Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, now commemorated on their centenary anniversary, are odd doctrinal ducks. They are both still routinely cited as the foundation for ascribing to persons on whom the state has conferred legal parent status a right under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. (According to Westlaw, judicial citation count for Meyer now nears 3000, and secondary-source citations have surpassed 7000.) It is a constitutional right to force states to confer on them greater legal power than the state is otherwise inclined to …

The Kincare Craze In Child Protection: Romanticism, Subterfuge, And Racial Separatism, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

Among recent developments in family law, the most prevalent issue on legislative agendas has been Kincare as an alternative to non-relative foster care when maltreated children cannot remain with parents. Long an available option legally but traditionally regarded with skepticism by child protection workers, Kincare is now idealized. A steady stream of state legislative bills aims to encourage or command child protection and foster care agencies to place maltreated children in the home of relatives or friends of their parents whenever one is available, ostensibly based on an assumption that this is categorically better for children than living with unrelated …

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status And Expanding Relief To Prevent Family Separation, Elaine Ouyang

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

This Note will begin by providing a brief overview of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and the Congressional intentions behind the creation of this classification and its subsequent amendments, primarily the 2008 TVPRA. It will then delve into the decade after the 2008 TVPRA enactment to explore the overall viability of family unity within the context of the United States’ immigration policy. To do so, this Note will look at cases from 2009–2018 before the Supreme Court of the State of New York and Appellate Division Second Judicial Department involving “one-parent cases,” where a biological parent is granted guardianship as part …

Teaching Client Counseling In The Shadow Of Homelessness, Gregory Zlotnick

Faculty Articles

Working with clients at risk of or experiencing, homelessness teaches personal and professional humility like few other experiences in law school or the practice of law. Yet such sensitive work also provides an opportunity for law students to develop both a keener understanding of their own professional identity-with its capacities and limitations and critical counseling skills. This essay draws upon experiences gained in three distinct law school projects that work with clients at risk of or experiencing, homelessness.

After providing a brief overview of each project, the essay will explore methods used for training and supervising students during their counseling …

Refundable Tax Credit Design: Cohabitating Parents And Gender Presumptions, Michelle Lyon Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This Essay is meant to encourage further thinking to improve upon design options for unmarried cohabitating parents. Are there better ways to recognize the needs of unmarried co-parents (whether living together or not) and to provide support for shared parenting? The policy considerations for providing support to unmarried cohabitating parents are different than those for supporting married couples, given that these individuals lack the financial protections of a formal partnership.

One solution is to have a default rule whereby the CTC is awarded to the primary caregiver. Canada’s gender presumption provides a degree of administrative simplicity, but the IRS could …

Immature (Data) Privacy, Yutang Hsiao

Buffalo Law Review

Sharenting, a combination of the words “sharing” and “parenting,” is a double-edged sword. It can cut both ways because even though it benefits parents by being a source of support and fostering community, it harms children in various significant and nuanced ways. While the world blames parents for sharing too much of their children’s data on social media, other actors also play a role and should share the blame. In this Article, I argue that the most fundamental question sharenting raises is in what ways children’s privacy is violated, and who commits the violation. Social media, as one of the …

The Effectiveness Of The Hague Convention In Addressing International Child Abduction, Areej A. Dakelallah Althubiti

Theses and Dissertations

Parental child abduction is a growing concern fueled by immigration, cross-cultural marriages, evolving family dynamics, and gaps in the implementation and enforcement of developed international frameworks. This study examines the effectiveness of and challenges to the enforcement of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (HCCA), which was developed to address this problem. Specifically, the goal of this research is to assess the effect the HCCA has had on parental kidnapping, analyze its effectiveness in resolving international custody disputes, and identify the legal and practical obstacles that inhibit implementation. While the prevalence of parental kidnapping continues …

The Fiction Of Equitable Distribution: Military Divorce, Disability, And The “Dire Plight” Of The Former Military Spouse, Zoe Speas

Washington and Lee Law Review

Division of retired pay is one of the most emotionally fraught elements of military divorce. For the servicemember, retired pay compensates decades of service to his country. For the civilian spouse, it remunerates the same decades of domestic labor that enabled such service. Federal restrictions on division of military retirement have spawned confusion and litigation for more than thirty years. Today, former spouses remain extremely vulnerable to this unique and “dire plight.”

In civilian divorce, state courts apply state law to fairly distribute marital assets. Military retirement and disability benefits, however, fall within the scope of the Uniformed Services Former …

The “Dire Plight” Contextualized: Comment On “The Fiction Of Equitable Distribution: Military Divorce, Disability, And The ‘Dire Plight’ Of The Former Military Spouse” By Zoe Speas, Catlin Meade

Washington and Lee Law Review

For forty years, military spouses have sacrificed their economic security and personal well-being to support their servicemember spouse’s military career, only to be thrust into a “dire plight” if their marriage ends in a community property state. The legislative policy that put them in this untenable position has not served federal interests: the military currently faces a recruiting crisis and military spouses’ economic security has not improved since the USFSPA. It is time for Congress and the DoD to reexamine the incentives and benefits provided to servicemembers and their families. Congress and the Court must end the USFSPA’s groundless, inequitable, …

Integration Over Institutionalization: Addressing Rhode Island’S Institutionalization Of Developmentally Disabled Children Through An Olmstead Compliance Framework, Anna Macgillivray

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vries V. Gaudiana, 318 A.3d 1035 (R.I. 2024), Rachel K. Lesinski

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Re N.D., 312 A.3d 438 (R.I. 2024), Alexandria Snyders Dykeman

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Glassie V. Doucette, 316 A.3d 1152 (R.I. 2024), Christopher M. Ray

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Practicing Justice: A Critical Self- Reflection On The Role Of Trauma In Legal Practice, Sarah Katz

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Re N.B., 312 A.3d 428 (R.I. 2024), Olivia F. Johnson

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Obergefell For Children Of Lgbtq+ Parents: Advancing Non-Discrimination Laws For Familial Association, Jeffrey Dodge

Faculty Scholarship

Since the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, same-sex marriages have increased significantly in the United States. The American Community Survey data collected in 2022 shows that there are around 1.3 million same-sex couple households in the country, up from 565,000 in 2028. Just over half of these couples are legally married, up nearly 400% from prior to Obergefell. This data not only shows the significance of Obergefell for the LGBTQ+ community, but it also frames a generational shift in attitudes on marriage and family.

With the rise in same-sex couples accessing marriage has come greater visibility, representation, and acknowledgement. …