In this week's "Family Law Reporter," I see that a high school classmate of mine, a deputy county attorney in Missoula, Montana, was on the right, and winning, side of a significant criminal/family law case, State v. Young, at http://pub.bna.com/fl/060382.pdf.
The court opinion says that an unwed father's rights as a parent are natural rights, not just rights granted by a court. In this case, the mother disappeared in order to keep the father out of the child's life. At that time, the parents were not married and there had not been a formal establishment of paternity under the paternity statute. Therefore, when she was caught and prosecuted, the mother argued that the father had had no rights that she violated at the time when she disappeared.
Foster v Wolkowitz, a UCCJEA child custody case that will be heard before the Michigan Supreme Court, illustrates that no all courts view an unmarried fathers rights as inherent. But more importantly, the case illustrates that courts do not view a child's relationship with an unmarried as one warranting significant protection. In that case, the trial and appellate courts both issued novel rulings in favor of the mother, who took the child to Michigan without the father's consent.
Posted by: Child Custody Observer | December 21, 2009 at 07:41 PM