{"id":402,"date":"2006-12-21T16:14:40","date_gmt":"2006-12-21T20:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/12\/21\/controversy-over-grandparent-visitation"},"modified":"2006-12-21T16:14:40","modified_gmt":"2006-12-21T20:14:40","slug":"controversy-over-grandparent-visitation-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/12\/21\/controversy-over-grandparent-visitation-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"controversy over grandparent visitation rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of us, this holiday season revolves around visiting grandparents or remembering such visits from our youth.\u00a0 For a small percentage of children, however, whether they get to see grandparents is a decision being made by family court judges, with grandparent rights being pitted against those of parents who want to deny or restrict such visitation. Just yesterday (Dec. 20, 2006), the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to review a recent Pennsylvania case, Hiller v. Fausey<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0involving grandparent visitation. (see How Appealing<\/em><\/a>, whose editor represents Fausey, the parent who lost below)<\/p>\n

The Fausey v. Hiller\u00a0Petition<\/a> asks the Supreme Court to clarify an issue left unresolved in\u00a0its landmark grandparent visitation case Troxel v. Granville<\/em><\/a>, 530 U.S. 57\u00a0(2000):<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like any good petition for a\u00a0writ of certiorari<\/a>,\u00a0the Fausey<\/em> Petition has a useful summary of the split among the state courts and legislatures over whether and when the decision of a fit parent can\u00a0be overridden by a court “in the best interests of the child.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"grandparentsAARP\"\u00a0 AARP’s Grandparenting<\/a> webpage<\/p>\n

If you would like more information on this topic, you should check out:\u00a0 a) AARP’s Grandparent Visitation<\/a> page, which includes suggestions for avoiding these issues down the road or resolving them out of court; b) the majority, concurring and dissenting opinions\u00a0from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Hiller v. Fausey, linked at the FamilyLawProfs weblog<\/a>, which give a summary of the issues and policies involved — looking at the rights of parents, grandparents and children; c) a recent summary at the California Family Law Blog<\/em><\/a>; and d)\u00a0the Sept. 12, 2006 USA Today<\/em> article, “Recent rulings favor grandparents<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"ornamentG\"\u00a0Some court self-help websites may also help\u00a0you to understand\u00a0the law as it exists in a particular state.\u00a0 And, as always, your law or public librarian should be able to help you find relevant materials on grandparent visitation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most of us, this holiday season revolves around visiting grandparents or remembering such visits from our youth.\u00a0 For a small percentage of children, however, whether they get to see grandparents is a decision being made by family court judges, with grandparent rights being pitted against those of parents who want to deny or restrict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[991,896],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-items","category-resources-consumer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}