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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Law - "Challenge of Grandparent’s Right of Custody Denied High Court Review"

Grandparent visitation rights (see a list of some ILB entries here) was the subject of this Feb. 26, 2007 ILB entry, which included a discussion of the grandparent visitation case of Fausey v. Hiller, for which a cert petition had been filed. The question presented in the case was:

Whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause is violated when a court orders grandparent visitation over a fit parent’s objection, where the grandparent has not proved by clear and convincing evidence that such an order is necessary to prevent harm or potential harm to the child.
Yesterday the Supreme Court denied review. Here is a story by Asher Hawkins of the Legal Intelligencer that begins:
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a certiorari petition in a case brought by a widowed father from northern Pennsylvania who disputed his former mother-in-law’s partial physical custody of his young son under the state’s Grandparents’ Visitation Act.

The father’s appellate attorney said he and his client are disappointed with the high court’s denial of cert because the roughly two-dozen states whose courts have ruled on such legislation are evenly split between two different schools of thought when it comes to standard.

According to Howard Bashman of Willow Grove, 13 states require grandparents to prove that harm to the child would result if visitation is not granted, while courts in 12 other states -- including Pennsylvania -- focus on the best interests of the child.

“I think my client is disappointed that the Supreme Court did not view the existing division among the states on the constitutionality of grandparent visitation laws to be deserving of review at this time,” Bashman said.

For more links, see this entry by Howard Bashman of How Appealing.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 27, 2007 09:01 AM
Posted to General Law Related