ADF statement on Montana Supreme Court ruling in Maniaci v. Kulstad

HELENA, Mont. - “The fundamental rights of parents to raise children the way they see fit should not be threatened by the wishes and desires of a legal stranger. But the court’s decision today, as one of its own justices stated in his dissent, ‘will open a Pandora’s Box of potential attacks upon the right of fit and capable parents to raise their own children,’" said Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund.  "Fit parents have the right and duty to raise their children, and the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld that right. So did the Montana Supreme Court, until now. Granting acquaintances and roommates parental rights over the objections of fit parents is a very dangerous precedent. We are analyzing our legal options.”

Montana Supreme Court Justice Jim Rice wrote in his dissent, “The Court’s decision will open a Pandora’s Box of potential attacks upon the right of fit and capable parents to raise their own children.... We have erected high legal barriers to protect parents from claims of third parties, holding that a ‘finding of abuse, neglect, or dependency is the jurisdictional prerequisite for any court-ordered transfer of custody from a natural parent to a third party.’ Even when considering a minimally invasive claim—the mere visitation of a child by the child’s grandparents—we have rejected on constitutional grounds the failure to recognize the wishes of a fit parent. However, the Court denies to Maniaci the constitutional protections promised to her in our previous holdings by removing the ‘jurisdictional prerequisite,’ which has protected parents against the claims of third parties, and thereby opens wide the door to such claims—not only against Maniaci, but potentially against all parents. Now, even parents who are fit and capable, like Maniaci, are potentially subject to the claims of third parties for rights to their children.”
 

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