Court says unwed father's rights natural, inherent

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.