Family Law Commons^™

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 …

Intimate Partner Violence And Family Dispute Resolution – Coercion, Capacity, And Control, Kelly Browe Olson

Law Faculty Scholarship

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most complex issues that family dispute resolution (FDR) professionals encounter. Over one-third of women and one-quarter of men in the United States have experienced physical violence, rape, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime (Black et al., 2011), and a majority of separation- and divorce-related cases involve IPV allegations (Ballard et al., 2011; Beck et al., 2010; Belzer, 2003). IPV often escalates, and is most dangerous, during and after separation and creates unique challenges for mediation and other collaborative processes (Beck & Raghaven, 2010; Kelly & Johnson, 2008). Therefore, all …

Don't Mess With Texans' Rights: Protecting Transgender Youth From The Paternalistic Policies Of State Executives, Mary Franklin

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion in 2022 detailing how gender-affirming care for transgender minors constituted child abuse under the Texas Family Code. As a result of this opinion, multiple families of trans teens engaging in various forms of gender-affirming care were investigated by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. This Article applies the constitutional standards imposed by the equal protection clause, substantive due process, and parental authority to Paxton’s recommendation, using both the U.S. and Texas Constitutions. Ultimately, this Article concludes that Paxton’s opinion fails to meet these constitutional standards and recommends action from the …

Shareholder Primacy Versus Shareholder Accountability, William W. Bratton

Seattle University Law Review

When corporations inflict injuries in the course of business, shareholders wielding environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) principles can, and now sometimes do, intervene to correct the matter. In the emerging fact pattern, corporate social accountability expands out of its historic collectivized frame to become an internal subject matter—a corporate governance topic. As a result, shareholder accountability surfaces as a policy question for the first time. The Big Three index fund managers, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, responded to the accountability question with ESG activism. In so doing, they defected against corporate legal theory’s central tenet, shareholder primacy. Shareholder primacy builds …

Verses Turned To Verdicts: Ysl Rico Case Sets A High-Watermark For The Legal Pseudo-Censorship Of Rap Music, Nabil Yousfi

Seattle University Law Review

Whichever way you spin the record, rap music and courtrooms don’t mix. On one side, rap records are well known for their unapologetic lyrical composition, often expressing a blatant disregard for legal institutions and authorities. On the other, court records reflect a Van Gogh’s ear for rap music, frequently allowing rap lyrics—but not similar lyrics from other genres—to be used as criminal evidence against the defendants who authored them. Over the last thirty years, this immiscibility has engendered a legal landscape where prosecutors wield rap lyrics as potent instruments for criminal prosecution. In such cases, color-blind courts neglect that rap …

Bibliography Of Family Law Publications Of The Pennsylvania Bar Institute (1971-2023), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

As practicing members of the bench and bar, readers of this article know of the publications of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI) that began in 1968 to published Continuing Legal Education programs. The following is a listing of the family-law CLE publications from 1971 through 2023. The listing is partly drawn from a short-title printed list of PBI publications listed chronologically from 1968 to 1998 (1-2192) that the author obtained many years ago and now number over 11,000 publications. Not every title can be found in the law library catalogs and so some titles are listed according to the titles …

The Ontological Expansiveness Of “Parental Rights” Rhetoric In K–12 Public Schools, Sacha M. Coupet, Kai Scott

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Child Welfare, Reasonable Efforts, And Covid-19, Anita Weinberg, Lilia Valdez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires governments to protect children from all forms of violence, including violence in the home. At the same time, Articles 3 and 5 obligate states to respect the rights and duties of parents to care for and make decisions on behalf of their children. Although the United States is not a signatory to the CRC, federal law also seeks to strike a balance between protecting children from harm by family members and recognizing the constitutional rights of parents to direct the care, control, and upbringing of …

Fast Track To The Civil Death Penalty: Involuntary Termination Of Parental Rights And An Analysis Of The Minnesota Supreme Court's Decision In R.D.L., Ryan E. Boevers

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sign Here: How Parental Waivers Exceed The Bounds Of Parents' Fundamental Rights, Carissa Hansen

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Spousal Maintenance And Cohabitation: Minnesota Should Shack Up With A Need-Based Approach, Alexis M. Zimmer

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Letting The Kids Run Wild: Free-Range Parenting And The (De)Regulation Of Child Protective Services, Fenja R. Schick-Malone

Washington and Lee Law Review

Families in the United States suffer from a removal epidemic. The child welfare framework allows unnecessary and harmful intervention into family and parenting matters, traditionally left to the discretion of the parent. Many states allow Child Protective Services (“CPS”) to investigate, intervene, and permanently separate a child from their parents for innocuous activities such as letting the child play outside unattended. This especially affects low-income and minority families.

To prevent CPS from unnecessarily intervening in a family’s decision to let their children engage in independent, unsupervised activities, Utah passed a “free-range” parenting act (“Act”) in 2018. The Act explicitly excludes …

Comment: Protecting Childhood Independence And The Families Who Embrace It, David Pimentel

Washington and Lee Law Review

The legal problem of how to give parents flexibility and how to give children independence cuts to the core of some of our most sacred values: (1) how we raise our kids in this society, (2) the degree to which parents are free to raise their children as they see fit, and (3) the extent to which the state gets to substitute its own judgment for that of parents. Incursions into the family, and disruptions of family security and integrity, should be the exception rather than the rule. Schick-Malone joins a small group of legal scholars who are not content …

We Shall Overcome: The Evolution Of Quotas In The Land Of The Free And The Home Of Samba, Stella Emery Santana

Seattle University Law Review

When were voices given to the voiceless? When will education be permitted to all? When will we need to protest no more? It’s the twenty-first century, and the fight for equity in higher education remains a challenge to peoples all over the world. While students in the United States must deal with the increase in loans, in Brazil, only around 20% of youth between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four have a higher education degree.

The primary objective of this Article is to conduct an in-depth comparative analysis of the development, implementation, and legal adjudication of educational quota systems within …

Pacific Islands And The U.S. Military: The Legal Borderlands Of The Environmental Movement, Sonia Lei

Seattle University Law Review

Climate change remains an urgent, ongoing global issue that requires critical examination of institutional polluters. This includes the world’s largest institutional consumer of petroleum: the United States military. The Department of Defense (DoD) is a massive institution with little oversight, a carbon footprint spanning the globe, a budget greater than the next ten largest nations combined, and overly generous exemptions to environmental regulations and carbon reduction targets. This Comment examines how this lack of accountability and oversight plays out in the context of three Pacific islands that have hosted U.S. military bases for decades. By considering the environmental impact of …

Adultery Provisions In Matrimonial Agreements, Elizabeth R. Carter

American University Law Review

Can a contract discourage your spouse from cheating or compensate you for a broken heart? Adultery penalties in marriage contracts seek to do exactly that. An adultery penalty is a financial penalty in a marriage contract triggered by a spouse’s infidelity. While many practitioners advise clients against adultery provisions in marriage contracts, some clients demand them. However, are adultery provisions enforceable? Should they be? This Article considers the sociolegal history of adultery and provides new insight into the enforceability and wisdom of adultery penalties. This Article also provides novel arguments that adultery provisions should not be enforced and calls upon …

Stopping The Cycle Of Abuse Before It Starts: An Evaluation Of Virginia's Domestic Violence Primary Prevention Model In Schools, Amanda Palini

Law Student Publications

In 1994 the United States was faced with a domestic violence epidemic that led Congress to pass the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The Act was passed to respond to the needs of victims, particularly women, who are at the highest risk of victimization in crimes such as domestic violence and sexual assault. While domestic violence has been recognized as an important public health problem, most services provided are focused on after-the-fact interventions rather than prevention.

Many states, including Virginia, have since created domestic violence prevention programs, added preventative requirements to their state code, and tasked their respective Departments of …

Capaldi V. Capaldi, 295 A.3d 822 (R.I. 2023)., Katherine S. Kazarian

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

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.