Re: Childs right to live with parent

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Nicole's post is simply not true.

1. In all but a couple of states, the child does NOT -- repeat
NOT -- choose which parent s/he will live with. The court makes
the decision with which parent the child will live. The
standard used by the court is: best interests of the child.

2. Regarding grandparental custody: Grandparents do not --
repeat NOT -- have a right to CUSTODY where both parents are
unfit. Again, the court decides all issues of custody. (It is
true that in many cases where both parents are unfit, many
states have laws that provide priority placement with blood
relatives, IF if the relatives step forward and are willing to
take custody of the child.)

Custody and visitation are separate issues.

3. Regarding grandparental rights to VISITATION: In June 2000,
the United States Supreme Court decided Troxel v. Granville and
basically said that that parent have a right to raise their
children however they see fit, as long as the parents are not
abusing or otherwise harming the child. This area of the law is
still evolving at the state level. Courts across the country
can’t seem to agree on it. For instance, the Michigan Supreme
Court recently struck down a state law that said grandparents
could visit — even if the parents objected — if it was in the
child’s best interests. The court said that parents have a right
to raise their children however they see fit, as long as they
aren’t abusing or otherwise harming them. The South Carolina
Supreme Court said the same thing. It threw out a law that let
grandparents visit where the parents ere divorced or separated.
But the California Court of Appeals disagreed. It upheld a state
law that said grandparents COULD visit in cases where one of the
parents had died. And the New Jersey Supreme Court said that
grandparents could visit if they could prove that the lack of
visitation would harm the children. These court decisions all
happened in the last few months. But there have been many other
decisions across the country, and it appears that the answer
will continue to vary a great deal from state to state and from
case to case.

All of these above laws are subject to constitutional
challenges. As yet, and as far as I know: no state law on
grandparent visitation has survived a constitutional challenge.
Again, the area of law is still evolving.

On 8/02/04, nicole wrote:
> you do have a choice of which parent you want to live
> with.the law is that if you are either 11 or 12 you can
> choose which parent you want to live with.also your
> grandparents have rights,it is called grandparents rights.if
> both parents are drinking and using drugs basically unfit
> parents,if your grandparents would step in and say they want
> custody of you then they will get it.

> On 5/17/01, Cal wrote:
>> Hi can anyone tell me why a judge would place you with one
>> parent when both of them was doing the same thing that has
>> effected me and my brother/We were not abused but they
>> drank and used drugs.My father was very honest and my mom
>> lied in court.I told the judge I wanted to live with my dad
>> and so does my brother but they said no.Im twelve yrs old
>> now and I want to live with my dad .If they wont let me I
>> would rather live with my granparents.Do I have a right to
>> choose who I want to live with??????????Please help me
>> out.I love both my parents but I m tired of all the name
>> calling and anger between them.My brother and I just want
>> to live a normal quite live.Why dont granparents have a
>> right to step in and take over.My grandparents love us and
>> would see to it that we had a good life.I think the courts
>> think moms are always right but I dont.