Supreme Court to sort out rights of grandparents to visit grandkids

Thursday, 6 January 2000

http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/0106N03.html

Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next Wednesday over whether grandparents have a legal right to visit their grandchildren even if a parent objects.
The Washington state case - the first about grandparent visitation ever heard by the high court - raises powerful questions of parental privacy, the best interests of children, the state's stake in their welfare and the definition of a family.
The legal test comes as the American family is changing. Against a tide of divorce, out-of-wedlock birth, same-sex unions, custody battles and paternity disputes, grandparents have struggled successfully in recent years for laws allowing them to stay in touch with their grandchildren.
At the heart of the case - Troxel vs. Granville - are two girls, Isabelle, 8, and Natalie, 10. Their father, Brad Troxel, committed suicide in 1993. In the difficult months after his death, his parents helped care for the girls. Over time, however, the children's mother, Tommie Granville, tried to limit the grandparents' involvement.
The grandparents sued and were granted visitation rights by a state court. The mother appealed, and in 1998 the state Supreme Court sided with her. The grandparents appealed that decision, and now the dispute will land them all before the U.S. Supreme Court next week.
The Troxel family feud punctuates a growing trend of grandparents' involvement in the lives of their grandchildren. Eleven percent of grandparents are caregivers to their grandchildren at least part time, according to a survey released yesterday by AARP, the senior citizens lobby. Some 1.5 million American children are raised primarily by their grandparents, and the number of grandparent caregivers has increased by 75 percent since 1970, AARP said.
In the case of Troxel vs. Granville, AARP has filed a brief supporting the Troxel grandparents and backing existing state laws that allow grandparents to file for visitation rights with grandchildren in cases of parental death or divorce.
``What we are supporting,'' said AARP attorney Rachel Bobroff, ``is a system that requires trial courts to look at the facts and whether (visitation) is in the best interest of the children.''
Every state has some kind of law allowing grandparents to request visitation rights. Arizona's is 17 years old. However, the Supreme Court could overrule those laws with a sweeping decision, which worries advocates.
To Richard Victor, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich., lawyer and founder of the non-profit Grandparents Rights Organization, ``the question becomes: How do we define family - in the eyes of the parent or the eyes of the child?''
To Arthur Kornhaber, an author and advocate for grandparents, the answer seems large, perhaps endless.
``Where does the continuity of the generations end? A parent is a parent for life. Children come out of parents, come out of grandparents, like Chinese boxes. It's organic.''
Not everyone feels that way, though.
Many social conservatives worry that such ``third-party'' visitation laws encroach upon the constitutional right of a parent, set forth in the 14th Amendment, to raise a child without undue interference from the state.
``I think the parent should have the final word in terms of familial relations,'' said Jan LaRue, senior director of legal studies at the Washington-based Family Research Council, a conservative group.
Conservatives are also wary of legal precedents that could help expand the definition of family.
Gay-rights advocates also are concerned, and are using the case to call for stronger protection for non-traditional families unrelated by marriage or biology. In addition, some women's-rights groups have weighed in on behalf of the mother in the case.


------------------------------------------------------------------------