Child, Parent and State Outline

 
PROFESSOR KING
CHILD PARENT STATE
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
FALL 2013
 
Three Themes:
(1)   Rights and Responsibilities
(2)   Perception of Children's competence as a basis for governmental regulation
(3)   Role of the Children's lawyer
 
CHAPTER 1
 
 I.     Childhood in America
 A.   Contemporary Conditions and Needs
 i.      racial composition of juvenile population
 ii.    correlation between poverty and family and children's distress
 iii.  poverty level out of touch with reality
 
 B.   Contemporary Juvenile and Family Court Systems
 i.      Juvenile Courts
 a)    juvenile courts are organized differently in different jurisdictions
 b)    typically have exclusive jsdxn over
·         abuse and neglect
·         civil abuse and neglect proceedings are different from criminal abuse and neglect
·         adoptions
·         status offenses
·         truancy, running away, ungovernability, CINS (in need of services)
·         delinquency
 ii.    Unified Family Court
 a)    allow one judge to resolve all matters typically associated with distressed families
·         one judge, one family
 iii.  Problem Solving Courts
 a)    combine punishment and help in an effort to improve public safety and prevent racidivism
·         truancy courts, DV courts, drug counts, etc
·         emphasize a team approach with everyone working on the same side
 
 II.  Law's Evolving Conception on Status, Rights, Obligations
 A.   Intro
 i.      The status of childhood lasts until a person reaches the general age of majority à18 years in almost every state
 ii.    The law view children as vulnerable, incapable and needing protection in some circumstances but as individuals with rights, decision-making capacity and personal responsibility in others
 B.    A.The Parens Patriae Doctrine, Parental Prerogatives, and the Child’s Obligation to Obey
 i.      Parens Patriae
 a)    parent of the country
 b)    fundamental basis for the government taking on the parent/child role
 c)    generally lasts until the child reaches the age of majority
 ii.    Police Power
 a)    states may regulate children and the family under their general police power to promote the health, safety, and welfare generally
 b)    non-intervention
·         reluctance to interfere in family affairs
 c)    help to shape the contours of public regulation regarding children
 
 C.   Traditional Roles of Parents and Government
 i.      Up through the beginning of the 20th century, children were viewed as the property of their parents, particularly of the father
 ii.    The first juvenile courts was created in 1899The following 2 cases are landmark cases that constitutionalize parental rights and help create a doctrinal foundation for the status, rights and obligations of children.
 
 iii.  MEYER V. NEBRASKA (1923)
 a)    Facts: P tried and convicted for unlawfully teaching reading in the German language to a 10-year-old boy, which was against the law
 b)    Issue: whether statute was unconstitutional by infringing on the liberty guaranteed by the 14th amendment
 c)    Holding:
·         Teacher's right thus to teach and the right of the parent's to engage him so to instruct their children are within the liberty of the 14th amendment
·         statute as applied is arbitrary and without reasonable relation to any end within the competency of the state
·         “There is no adequate foundation for the suggestion that the purpose was to protect the child's health by limiting his mental activities.”
 
 iv.  PIERCE V. SOCIETY OF SISTERS (1925)
 a)    Facts: Compulsory education act required all parents/guardians to send all children between ages 8-16 to public school
·         Society of sisters challenged bill as unconstitutional
 b)    Holding: inevitable and practical result of enforcing the act would be destruction of private schools
·         citing Meyer: “we think it entirely plain that the Act unreasonably interferes witth the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”
 c)    Note:
·         when weighing the interests, the court gave more weight to the interest of the parents than to the interest of the state, but they still gave a good amount of weight to the state's pares patriae right
 v.     Both Meyer and Pierce established a parent's constitutional right to care for their children
 a)    neither decision says much about the children's interests
 b)    both are still good law and cited often
 
 D.  Movement Towards Children's Rights
 i.      after Meyer and Pierce, cts gradually began to recognize children may hold rights of their own in contests with the government and even with their own parents
 
 
 ii.    PRINCE V. MASSACHUSETTS (1944)
 a)    Facts: Prince appealed from convictions for violating Mass's child labor laws by allowing her 9-year-old neice to sell literature of Jehovah's Witnesses on the public streets
 b)    Issue: whether law contravened the 14th amenedment by denying or abrdiging appellant's freedom of religion and by denying her equal protection under the laws
 c)    Holding: Ct said that acting to guard the general interest in the youth's well being, the state's parens patriae may restrict the parent's control by imposing certain requirements within the state's police power, such as the prohibition of child labor
·         “we think that with reference to the public proclaiming of religion, upon the streets and in other similar pulbic places, the power of the state to control the conduct of children reaches beyond the scope of its authority over adults, as is true in the case of other freedoms, and the rightful boundary of its powers has not been crossed in this case.”
 d)    the idea that children hold rights under the Constitution is not a part of the Prince holding, but the discussion of such is dictum which will be used in future holdings
 iii.  Can cite to all 3 cases for the principle of Parens Patriae and also for the proposition that parents have a right to the care, custody and control of their children, despite their different outcomes
 a)    Prince, Meyer, Pierce
 
 iv.  Note on Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and In re Gault (1967)
 a)    Brown: Unanimously held that racial segregation in the public schools denies equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The court expressly vindicated rights held by children
 b)    Gault: The court held that neither the 14th Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults alone. By holding that children are persons under the 14th amendment, the court expressly overcame the Constitution’s failure to mention children explicitly.
 c)    Brown and Gault framed the disputes as pitting the government against the children and then vindicated the children’s rights (substantive constitutional rights & procedural constitutional rights)
 d)    Brown and Gault together reaffirmed Prince and established that children hold constitutional rights in disputes w/ the gov
 
 III.                       Children's Rights in School
 A.   TINKER V. DES MOINES SCHOOL DISTRICT
 i.      Facts: students wore black armbands to protest Viet Nam War. School prohibited and suspends them.
 ii.    Issue: is this protected free speech under the first amendment?
 iii.  Holding:
 a)    (1) Children have First Amendment rights (in school and society and general)
·         “it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
 b)    (2) Distinguishes “pure speech” from the kind of expression involved in clothing hairstyle choices
·         this case invovles direct, primary 1st amendment rights akin to pure speech