Two More State Supreme Courts Uphold Grandparent Visitation Laws – Despite the Supreme Court’s Holding that They Can Be Unconstitutional is an online article by Joanna Grossman posted yesterday. In it she digests the recent Utah and Pennsylvania cases upholding grandparent visitation along with links to them, to Troxel and to other post-Troxel cases
“Importantly, though, the Troxel Court did not rule in such a way as to necessitate the invalidation of grandparent visitation laws nationwide.
Two More State Supreme Courts Uphold Grandparent Visitation Laws – Despite the Supreme Court’s Holding that They Can Be Unconstitutional is an online article by Joanna Grossman posted yesterday. In it she digests the recent Utah and Pennsylvania cases upholding grandparent visitation along with links to them, to Troxel and to other post-Troxel cases
“Importantly, though, the Troxel Court did not rule in such a way as to necessitate the invalidation of grandparent visitation laws nationwide.
Granted, some third-party visitation statutes have been struck down under Troxel. Iowa, for example, struck down its law, criticizing the legislature’s substitution of “sentimentality for constitutionality,” to the detriment of parental decisionmaking.
However, within the last two years, California and Ohio have both upheld their state’s laws against similar challenges, and, within the last month, Pennsylvania and Utah have joined them.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, in Hiller v. Fausey, that a state law permitting grandparent visitation over the objection of the child’s sole living parent was constitutional — even without any showing that denying grandparent visitation would cause harm to the child….”
The Utah Supreme Court ruled similarly in Uzelacv. Thurgood, another case in which a father denied visitation with maternal grandparents after the mother’s death.”
It’s a useful article to save in your brief bank.
UPDATE: Indiana Law Blog has a number of posts on this issue as well.
