Tag Archives: Topic: Parental Rights

Mats Tunehag’s blog at Varlden Idag: “The 7 year old Domenic were taken from his parents in late June because they wanted to home school him. Dominic is still not reunited with his family; his mother Annie is critically ill (trauma) and his father Christer is going through sleepless nights fighting for justice for his family.”

The Religion Clause Blog: “A court in Orlando, Florida yesterday held another hearing in the case of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old who fled her Muslim parents’ home in Ohio and came to Florida claiming that she feared her father would kill her because she had converted to Christianity . . . WBNS TV10 reported on Tuesday that Pastor Blake Lorenz and his family are under criminal investigation for possibly helping Bary flee from Ohio.”

Maine Sun Journal editorial: “Will same-sex marriage be taught in schools, if it becomes legal in Maine? No — nothing in law, or curriculum, mandates any Maine student be taught about marriage, same-sex or otherwise. Should same-sex marriage be taught? Again, the answer is no. Marriage should not be part of a curriculum.”

RightSideNews (EagleForum.org): “No public school student in California hears an ‘abstinence only’ message in school. But now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is working to prevent students from hearing about abstinence until marriage at all, even in the context of a sex education curriculum that also teaches them about contraceptives. So far, the ACLU has won support from at least one County Office of Education in its effort to keep speakers promoting abstinence out of California schools.”

Family Diversity and Political Freedom: How Can People With Different Approaches to Family Life Live Together in Free Societies?
World Congress of Families, Patrick Fagan, Ph.D., 8.12.2009

“The ‘monogamous’ and the ‘polyamorous’ cultures have totally different approaches to life, with religious worship and monogamous marriage being the defining differences in their different approaches to the sexual act. Coexistence necessitates that the differences be observed by giving parents of both cultures control over the programs that cause conflict: education, adolescent health and sex education. Monogamous men need to act to obtain this for the sake of their own children.”

“An Arizona couple accused of sexual abuse after taking bath-time photos of their children and then trying to have them developed at Walmart are suing the state and the retail giant.”

Julie Shapiro: “I do not believe gamete donors are or should be seen as parents.”

Christian Concern for our Nation: “An independent report, commissioned by the Government and published this year, recommends that home-schooling must come closer to the Government control. It says that home educators should be made to register with their local authorities annually, set out in writing their plans for educating the child for the next year and have regular home inspections to monitor children’s educational progress . . . ”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss this: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school.

The MP3 runs just over 33 minutes.

“In a recent troubling judgment . . . , Quebec’s Superior Court ruled that parents do not have ultimate authority over the moral or religious education of their children . . . ”

Courtney G. Joslin, Interstate Recognition of Parentage in a Time of Disharmony: Same-Sex Parent Families and Beyond (June 23, 2009). Ohio State Law Journal, Vol. 70, No. 563, 2009; UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper No. 178. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1424535

“Lesbian and gay parenting is not, however, the only area of parentage law where the states have adopted widely divergent rules based on moral or policy concerns. To the contrary, parentage has become an increasingly contested area of law. This Article seeks to fill the gap in the literature by considering the potential ripple effects of these same-sex parent cases in two other areas of parentage law – surrogacy and paternity disestablishment.”

Petoskey News-Review: “A House bill would soon require every school district to teach students more about sex education than just abstinence. The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township, would mandate that public schools teach contraceptive techniques as a method of birth control.”

FoxNews: “Florida authorities’ investigation into a teenager’s claims that her life is in danger for converting from Islam to Christianity found no credible threats to 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, according to a newly unsealed report.”

Center for Arizona Policy Press Release: “Center for Arizona Policy will be vigorously working to oppose the lawsuit filed today by Planned Parenthood to challenge Arizona’s new abortion laws.”

BizJournals.com: “Planned Parenthood officials said the group is not challenging Arizona’s late-term abortion law but filed its suit regarding laws affecting parental consent, the ban on nurses performing abortions and 24-hour waiting period.”

ADF allied attorney John Anthony Simmons writing in the Nashua Telegraph: “What this case boils down to is a judge’s intolerance of a 10-year-old girl’s Christian faith. It’s about the limited role of courts, the expansive rights of parents, and the constitutional protection of religious liberties . . . So it should not be surprising to anyone that one of the foremost defenders of religious liberties, the Alliance Defense Fund, would be interested and involved in this case.”

Orlando Sentinel: “Gov. Ted Strickland’s office says Ohio officials can protect Fathima Rifqa Bary, who ran away from her Muslim parents to Christian evangelists in Orlando.”

Cal Thomas writing in the Gwinnett Daily Post: “The latest of many examples of government arrogance has come in New Hampshire, of all places, where the state motto is ‘Live Free or Die.’ A state judge has ordered a girl who was being educated at home by her mother to begin attending a public school because of the ‘rigidity’ of her mother’s religious views . . . There are a number of issues in this case, not the least of which is the court’s attempt to define what represents an ‘extreme’ religious view and what is more ‘mainstream.’ . . . Amanda’s mother retained the Alliance Defense Fund, the conservative legal alliance that works to defend religious liberty.”

Kimberly Mutcherson, Disabling Dreams of Parenthood: The Fertility Industry, Anti-Discrimination and Parents with Disabilities (September 10, 2009). Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1297941

“Recognizing the complicated relationship between potential patients and fertility doctors, this Article seeks to provide some clarity and guidance to those facing the daunting task of accepting or rejecting patients on the basis of their disability status.”

ADF allied attorney John Anthony Simmons appeared on CFRB, the Ryan Doyle Show to discuss the case of a NH homeschooler ordered to attend public school due to her religious beliefs.

The MP3 runs just under 5 minutes.

ADF media information: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school

Gay-Straight Alliances and Free Speech: Are Parental Consent Laws Constitutional
Keola R. Whittaker, 24 Berkeley J. Gender L. & Just. 48 (2009)

“In this article I argue that parental consent laws, like those enacted in Utah and Georgia, violate the First Amendment’s protections on the freedom of association. Specifically, I draw a comparison between parental consent laws and the NAACP v. Alabama line of cases, which holds that the compelled disclosure of an organization’s membership list can infringe on the right to privacy of association and belief.”

NPR: “[S]ome public high schools in the nation’s capital will soon begin offering students screenings and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and will do so without requiring children to obtain parental consent.”

William McGurn writing in the Wall Street Journal: “Two Christian girls. Two sets of distraught parents. And two state courts smack in the middle of it. One of these courts is in New Hampshire, where a judge recently ordered that home-schooled Amanda Kurowski be sent to public school . . . So while . . . the Alliance Defense Fund filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider, last week Amanda started fifth grade at a local public school. At about the same time Miss Kurowski was starting school in New Hampshire, a state court in Florida was considering what to do with 17-year-old Rifqa Bary.”

“. . . a revolution in the legal understanding of parenthood seems to have quietly begun with little or no public debate or discussion. This dramatically transformative development is the statutory recognition of ‘de facto’ parenthood . . .”

ADF attorney Doug Napier appeared on “The David Boze Show” on KTTH, The Truth Radio to discuss this: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school.

The MP3 runs just under 10 minutes.

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appears on the Meeting House on Faith Radio with Bob Crittenden to discuss this: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school.

The MP3 runs just over 13 minutes.

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on Reality Check Radio with Mike and Clairie Monokian to discuss this: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school

The MP3 runs just over 8 minutes.

ADF Allied attorney John Anthony Simmons appeared on 93.9 KPDQ FM with Georgene Rice to discuss the case of a New Hampshire homeschooler ordered to attend public school.

The MP3 runs just under 11 minutes.

ADF Media information page: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school

Liberty Counsel: “In what is an unprecedented and an illegal political move, President Obama has announced that on Tuesday, September 8, he will bypass parents and directly target their children in an effort to implement his political agenda. Millions of parents are justifiably outraged. Federal law expressly forbids the Secretary of Education or any officer from exercising ‘any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system.’ 20 U.S.C. § 3403. The President must cease this illegal activity . . . ”

Columbus Dispatch: “Outside the Orlando courthouse, it was clear yesterday that the saga of Fathima Rifqa Bary has become much bigger than the private turmoil of a 17-year-old Columbus runaway. Christian supporters of Rifqa, some of them from out of state, held Bibles and tried to crowd into the tiny courtroom alongside an army of newspaper and TV reporters and bloggers.”

One News Now: “A 17-year-old girl who says she ran away from her Muslim family in Ohio because she feared she could be killed for converting to Christianity can remain in Florida for now.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In the Canadian province of Quebec, a trial court judge has rejected a challenge by Christian parents to the mandatory new course in grades 1 through 11 in Quebec schools that teaches about a broad range of world religions.”

Leonard Link: “The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, announced on September 1 that it was granting Lambda Legal’s petition for leave to appeal a decision by the Appellate Division in Manhattan, which had ruled that a lesbian co-parent may not seek joint custody or visitation with a child she had been raising with her former same-sex Vermont civil union partner.”

Debra H. v. Janice R., 877 N.Y.S.2d 259

Center for Security Policy: “The Center for Security Policy– along with the Florida Security Council and Nonie Darwish, bestselling author of Cruel and Usual Punishment– hosted a blogger conference call to discuss the latest developments in the plight of 17-year-old Rifqa Bary. Ms. Bary– a Muslim who converted to Christianity — fled her family in Ohio out of fear that, in accordance with what authoritative Islam calls shariah, they would take her life as punishment for leaving the Islamic faith. As was discussed on the call, this fear has been reinforced by the fact that her family’s mosque, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, has been tied to terrorism and jihadist ideology from its inception. Ms. Bary has fled to Florida where her attorneys are trying to prevent state authorities from sending her back to her family and possibly her death. The transcript of the conference call is as follows . . . ”

TIME: “But despite the heated rhetoric once again fueling a Florida fracas, it’s not at all clear that Rifqa Bary’s rights are in danger.”

FOX News: “The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based organization that seeks to preserve religious liberty and the sanctity of marriage, has asked a family court judge to reconsider her July 14 decision to send the girl, identified in court documents as ‘Amanda,’ to a public school in Meredith, N.H.”

CBN News: “The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, is challenging a New Hampshire court’s decision to remove a girl out of homeschooling . . . ‘The New Hampshire Supreme Court itself has specifically declared, Home education is an enduring American tradition and right,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson.”

LifeNews: “A pro-life legal group has filed a challenge against state officials in Illinois who have put off for 90 days a federal court order to began enforcing the state’s parental notification law on abortion. The law would allow parents to know when their teen daughters are requesting an abortion.”

North Carolina Family Policy Council: “This week the State Board of Education will consider a $188,000 contract with Appalachian State University to promote contraceptive sex education and pro-homosexuality activities and training for North Carolina teachers and parents.”

The Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage Blog carries this discussion of a Texas ruling that dismisses a lesbian’s claims regarding her former partner’s child.

In the Interest of M.K.S.-V., No. 080586F (Aug. 11, 2009)

ADF attorney Mike Johnson appeared on KWRD-FM with Janet Mefferd to discuss the case of a homeschooled child ordered into a public school on the basis of her religious beliefs.

The MP3 runs just over 16 minutes.

ADF Media information page: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school

LifeNews: “A federal judge has issued a ruling saying a collection of pro-life groups don’t have standing to file a lawsuit against the FDA over its decision allowing the sales of the morning after pill to minors . . . Matt Bowman, a top attorney with ADF, talked with LifeNews.com about the challenge when it was filed in June. ‘The life and health of women, especially minors, is more important than the political agenda of pro-abortion activist groups,’ he said. ‘Minors are least of all in a position to make an informed decision about the life or death of a child, or even about their own safety. It is a lie that over-the-counter sales of this drug increase safety for women, including minors.’”

ADF allied attorney John Anthony Simmons appeared on Lifeline (KFAX) with Crag Roberts to discuss the case of a home-schooled girl who was ordered to public school to diversify her exposure to other faiths.

The MP3 runs just over eight minutes.

Related ADF media information page: NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school

Janice Shaw Crouse writes at Townhall: “. . . in the view of the United Nations, sexuality education is the responsibility of ‘education and health authorities’ not parents . . . Excluding parents from the process keeps them from being aware of how frequently ‘sexuality education’ indoctrinates against traditional values, especially ‘discrimination based on sexual orientation.’”

Boise Christian Living Examiner: “A New Hampshire court recently ordered 10-year old homeschooler, Amanda Kurowski, to public school because she defended her Christian faith too vigorously . . . ‘It is not the proper role of the court to insist that Amanda be ‘exposed to different points of view’ if the primary residential parent has determined that it is in Amanda’s best interest not to be exposed to secular influences that would undermine Amanda’s faith, schooling, social development, etc.,’ explained the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Law.com (New York Law Journal): “Five months after ordering the Food and Drug Administration to allow the marketing of the emergency contraceptive Plan B to 17-year-olds without a prescription, a Brooklyn federal judge has refused to allow three Christian lobbying groups who oppose abortion to challenge the ruling . . . Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, who also represented the intervenors, said the groups were evaluating their options but declined to comment further on whether they would appeal.”

KTUU (AP): “Anti-abortion advocates kicked off their campaign in Anchorage for an initiative that would require parental consent for minors to have an abortion.”

Christian Post: “[Amanda Kurowski's] strong Christian beliefs were reason enough for a New Hampshire court to order her out of homeschooling and into a public school . . . Although there is no dispute that Amanda is excelling academically and is generally interactive with her peers, her religious beliefs were seen as being held a bit too sincerely, Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney John Anthony Simmons explained . . .”

WorldNetDaily: “A Christian homeschooled girl was ordered by a New Hampshire court this week to attend a public school because her faith is a ‘bit too sincerely held and must be sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews’ . . . Thankfully, attorneys working with the Alliance Defense Fund have filed motions with the court, asking it to reconsider the order . . .”

What’s Wrong With the World: “It is absolutely obvious to anyone who reads the ADF’s motions that the court has ordered the child into public school so that she will be in an environment more hostile to her faith and hence more challenging to it.”

CNN International: “The bill, approved Thursday by a vote of 40-13, must pass the Senate. Because the ruling Frente Amplio party holds a majority, the bill’s passage is almost assured in the Senate, which must vote before September 15.”

WORLDmag.com: “A New Hampshire court has ordered a mother to cease homeschooling her 10-year-old daughter and put her into a public school . . . Alliance Defense Fund-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons said the ruling is troubling because the court based its decision on Amanda’s faith rather than the quality of her education: ‘Every time you have a court order that uses a wrong standard or misapplies constitutional law, everyone’s rights are eventually at stake.’”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “So the logic of this decision, if accepted, might well eventually carry over to decisions about intact families, too . . . The Alliance Defense Fund has more on this case, including pointers to its filings in the case.”

WCAX.com (AP): “A religious freedom group has taken up the cause of a New Hampshire mother who wants to keep home-schooling her daughter. The Alliance Defense Fund has asked a family court judge to reconsider a decision last month that sends the 10-year-old daughter of Brenda Voydatch to a public school in Meredith.”

The Citizen of Laconia: “In a potentially precedent-setting case, an attorney for a local woman is asking a Belknap County family court judge to reconsider a ruling that the woman’s daughter attend public school in Meredith rather than continue with home-schooling . . . The Alliance Defense Fund on Wednesday announced that it has filed papers in Laconia asking to reconsider the decision issued last month. John Anthony Simmons, an attorney associated with the Defense Fund, who is representing the 10-year-old girl’s mother, said the judge has also been asked to stay the order so the daughter can continue with her home-schooling while the judge reconsiders the matter.”

OneNewsNow: “A Christian homeschool girl in New Hampshire has been ordered into government-run public school for having ‘sincerely held’ religious beliefs . . . Simmons contends that parents have a ‘fundamental right to make educational choices for their children.’”

Times Online: “The prospect of a human baby with three biological parents has moved closer after scientists created monkeys using a technique that one day could stop children from inheriting severe genetic diseases.”

The Local (AFP): “The Federal Constitutional Court decided in favour of a woman in the southern city of Schweinfurt who wanted to adopt the now three-year-old child of her female partner, with the consent of the father and social services. The lower court had argued that such a move would be unconstitutional because it placed the rights of the partner of a parent above those of a biological parent. The constitutional court rejected this argument on Tuesday, saying that life partners who assume the role of a parent to a child have the right to formalise that role.”

EurActiv: A pro-abstinence sex education programme used in many Croatian schools is legally acceptable, the European Committee for Social Rights (ECSR) has found . . . Hailing the decision, Roger Kiska, a legal counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, an alliance of Christian attorneys, said ‘we are pleased that the European Committee for Social Rights has upheld the right for parents to choose an option that does not violate [their] core religious and moral beliefs.’ ‘Parents should be the ones responsible for making educational choices for their children – not leftist activist groups,’ added Kiska, who represented the organisation which drafted Croatia’s curriculum in the case.”

LifeSiteNews: “The body that polices compliance with the European Social Charter, a human rights document binding on all states within the Council of Europe, has deemed a pro-abstinence sex education program used in many Croatian schools to be acceptable. Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Roger Kiska represented the organization that produced the curriculum, which provided his briefs to the government of Croatia to aid in its defense of the program, preferred by the vast majority of Croatian families over a radically leftist option. ‘Parents should be the ones responsible for making educational choices for their children – not leftist activist groups,’ said Kriska. ‘We are pleased that the European Committee for Social Rights has upheld the right for parents to choose an option that does not violate the core religious and moral beliefs of these families.’”

Liberty Counsel: “Earlier today, Liberty Counsel appeared in court to defend Lisa Miller from a complaint filed by the ACLU of Virginia on behalf of Janet Jenkins. The ACLU asked the judge to order Lisa to jail for not delivering her own daughter, Isabella, to Vermont for unsupervised visitation with Janet. The ACLU also requested Lisa to pay attorneys fees and costs. No jail time was ordered and the court rejected the ACLU’s request for money.”

North Carolina Family Policy Council: “A new government study found that the Gardasil vaccine—which helps to protect against genital warts and certain cancers that are caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)—results in higher, but expected, instances of fainting and blood clotting than similar vaccines . . . The North Carolina General Assembly recently amended the state’s sex education curriculum for 7-9th graders to ‘include information about the effects of contracting the Human Papilloma Virus, including sterility and cervical cancer.’”

Parental Rights and the State Regulation of Religious Schools
Matthew Steilen, 2009 B.Y.U. Educ. & L.J. 269

“In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the United States Supreme Court invalidated convictions of several Amish parents for removing their children from school in violation of state mandatory attendance laws. In reaching its decision, the Court argued that protecting the Amish parents’ decisions fit into a long-standing American tradition of giving parents control over the upbringing of their children. Yet the Supreme Court mischaracterized the history of parental rights and state interests in education. Contemporary historical research shows that parents have long ceded a large measure of control to the state in the education of their children. Still, very little has been written about this scholarship in legal journals. This article attempts to remedy this deficiency. It isolates and explores three key periods in the development of state-administered public schools, paying special attention to early public funding of religious schools, the Protestant character of the common schools, and Catholic resistance to the use of the King James Bible in common schools. In so doing, this article argues for a “republican” interpretation of early educational practices. Drawing on that interpretation, the article joins a debate between Noah Feldman, Martha Nussbaum, and others about the nature of American religious liberties, and argues that their views are not able to fully acknowledge the history of Protestant evangelizing in public schools.”

Constitutionality of Home Education: How the Supreme Court and American History Endorse Parental Choice
Chad Olsen, 2009 B.Y.U. Educ. & L.J. 399

“The year 2008 frightened many homeschooling parents. A California Court of Appeals case, In re Rachel L., appeared to close the door on many parents’ assumed right to home school their children. The court said, ‘[P]arents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,’ and added that non-credentialed parents may not home school their children . . . Part II of this article provides the background information relevant to understanding the court’s rehearing decision in Jonathan. This includes information about Rachel and the concurrent publicity. Part III then analyzes Jonathan and its implications. Following this analysis, Part IV examines Supreme Court precedent that is relevant to home education. Next, Part V gives a historical perspective on home education in the United States.”

Deseret News: “A town-hall meeting will be held Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 6 p.m., to discuss a bill that would implement changes to the state’s sex-education curriculum.”

“One of the great mysteries of modern life . . . [is] the increasing inability of women to understand, appreciate, and defend each other.”

North Carolina Family Policy Council: “After conceding that ‘same-sex adoption’ does not exist in North Carolina law, a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals has affirmed that a woman is a legal parent of the biological child of her former partner. The case, Boseman v. Jarrell, involved a custody dispute between State Senator Julia Boseman (D-New Hanover) and Melissa Jarrell, over Jarrell’s six-year old son, who was conceived through artificial insemination in 2002 and later adopted by Boseman.”

AdelaideNow.com: “A Melbourne man who paid a woman for sex is resisting child support requests after the alleged prostitute had his baby. The married man argues the child is potentially a breach of the Trade Practices Act. He told a Federal Magistrate he shouldn’t have to pay for the inadvertent offspring given the circumstances of the conception.”

ADF attorney David Cortman appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss school choice for special needs children.

The MP3 runs just over 33 minutes.

The Daily: “Marion is optimistic proposed changes to Queensland law regarding altruistic surrogacy, expected to be introduced in the parliament by the end of the year, will allow both members of same-sex couples to become recognised as legal parents if they choose to have a child.”

Empty Promises? How State Procedural Rules Block LGBT Minors from Vindicating Their Substantive Rights
Sara Jeruss, 43 U.S.F. L. Rev. 853 (2009)
“Part I discusses the unique situations LGBT adolescents face and how a right of access to courts would help these minors. Part II discusses United States Supreme Court jurisprudence regarding parents’ rights and minors’ rights, and how to resolve conflicts between the two. Part II concludes that the Supreme Court has consistently privileged the best interests of the minor and recognized the importance of assisting minors in making informed decisions and developing into mature adults.”

Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage Blog: “. . . the court’s failure to rule definitively that a court can waive the provision terminating a biological parent’s rights does leave the door open for some trial court judge in the state to rule that the law does not permit such waiver.”

Today’s ruling in Boseman v. Jarrell, No. COA08-957 (NC App. Aug. 18, 2009)

LifeSiteNews: “20-year-old Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has, in an interview with a homosexual magazine, expressed anger and intolerance for parents who oppose education about homosexual sex in the classroom.”

LifeSiteNews: “Alberta’s new legislation, Bill 44, that recognizes the rights of parents to oversee their children’s education, could be implemented as early as October or November, says Culture and Community Spirit Minister Lindsay Blackett.”

Gary Palmer, president of the Alabama Policy Institute, writes: “When school children return to school, most parents return to their school year routines. Once everyone settles into their school year schedules, there are issues that parents will start noticing. One in particular that they should be acutely interested in is the quality of education their children are receiving. Unfortunately, what the public school systems report about the quality of academic outcomes is often inconsistent with what independent groups report.”