Father has right to seek custody in state child neglect case - Conn. S.Ct.

A non-custodial parent has a constitutional right to participate in a case where the state claims the child is neglected, the Connecticut Supreme Court says in In Re Joseph W., 6/28/11 (official release date). It’s amazing that a court would even have to face that question in this day and age, but the ancient, savage notion that non-custodial parents are not fit parents is still out there. Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers noted that the statute on whether non-custodial parents can be involved in these cases is ambiguous, but the biggest consideration for the Supreme Court was the constitutional one — it would be unconstitutional to interpret the statute to exclude the non-custodial parent from presenting evidence and seeking custody when the state is trying to terminate parental rights and take a child based on the custodial parent’s actions.