Do you support a presumption of Equal Parental Fitness in accordance with the 14th Amendment?
Currently, there are laws, standards, and practices that–when combined–constitute discriminatory policies in Family Court jurisdictions particularly against fathers. By extension, these violate the rights of children.
The Supreme Court and Federal Circuit courts have long upheld the Parent-Child relationship as being so fundamental as to warrant EXTENSIVE due process protections.
There is consensus in the psychological community that shared parenting is in the best interests of children more often than not. Aside from the Constitutional Law violations, would it not stand to reason that shared parenting should be the standard, instead of the rare exception in separation/child custody issues?
14th Amendmen
Family Law needs serious reform, and Family Courts should not be empowered to create master/slave dynamics–again, especially along gender lines–without each parent having Due Process observed, and observed equally. Each parent should be on equal footing walking into a courtroom. Our children deserve to have both parents scrutinized by the same standards. That is in their “best interest”.
A rebuttable presumption of shared parenting should be the starting point in all jurisdictions. The parent and/or state should have the burden of proof placed on their shoulders to prove the other parent as “unfit” or “less than fit” in order to deviate from the shared parenting presumption. The concept is the same as “presumption of innocence”.
In the vast majority of cases, one parent(usually the father), has to overcome higher standards of proof to approach equality in parenting. Shared parenting presumptions begin to level the playing field, which is in our children’s best interest. Family Law Reform needs to be an election topic in 2016.
So you’d rather watch tournament games and go bowling than support a “We Are Fathers” campaign for justice and equality. Well that’s your choice, it’s a free country, in theory anyway. But you should know that countless lawyers, child experts and bureaucrats are cheering you on because they profit from all this apathy and a misguided sense of priorities.
In America today, our government is engaged in the lucrative expansion of a child control bureaucracy that is harming our families, productivity and moral fiber as a nation. This vast public enterprise has invaded every aspect of private life, often wielding power beyond that exercised by the NSA, CIA or IRS. It is a silent and insidious trend eroding parental rights repeatedly declared by our Supreme Court to be the “oldest liberty interest” protected by the United States Constitution.
This interest is shared equally by fathers and mothers. But in practice, the male half has not been accorded its rightful place among our human rights due to a profit motive in family court driven by needless custody, support and divorce contests. Census Bureau reports continue to show the gender disparities on all domestic fronts. After promoting a parental rights cause in Paris recently, I was amazed to note how a million people together with world leaders could rally in that city within days to support free speech. Meanwhile, here in the states, more than 70 million fathers have yet to mobilize after a century of widespread discrimination.
Such discrimination is having harmful impacts on all aspects of society and quite likely the female population more so than its counterpart. Veterans, minorities and high profile figures are particularly vulnerable to a court system that has placed money and politics over genuine parent-child relationships. Fathers are a vital component of any social or family structure as they have been since the beginning of civilization. Unfortunately federal entitlement laws and incentive funding to the states have marginalized that role to a point of virtual extinction. This has led to educational costs, heinous crimes and moral deterioration on a vast scale corroborated by an exodus from all manner of religion. In practical terms, our taxpayers are funding the creation of social ills and then forced to pay for it on the back side with costly welfare programs.
Future generations will look back one day and be amazed at how truly barbaric our domestic relations courts once were. A scheme of laws and processes derived from feudal equity doctrines has been retained which features loving parents engaged in brutal contests over their offspring in a public arena. A winner-take-all battle for custody leads to overregulation of families by the state and marginalization, alienation or outright extinction of one fit parent from the children’s lives. Anal investigations of the combatants’ backgrounds by self serving advisors incite further controversy to last a lifetime. It is a spectacle reminiscent of the Roman Coliseum.
No person or entity has ever been able to achieve a comprehensive study of the vast detriment which this archaic custody and support system has had upon our society. Any such effort would assuredly be stymied because custody and unequal parenting are highly profitable. Yet common sense dictates that our nation could be well served with sweeping reforms here in our least scrutinized branch of government. We can put a man on the moon, split atoms, engage artificial intelligence and achieve vast breakthroughs in medicine but remain unable to extricate family courts from their nineteenth century practices.
www.Facebook.com/AmericanFathers
View all posts by American Fathers
7 thoughts on “Do you support a presumption of Equal Parental Fitness in accordance with the 14th Amendment?”
Parents on the brink of child custody and access battles sometimes find comfort in popular myths that minimize the risks involved to their children. Parents who rely upon those myths do so at the risk of their children’s emotional health.
Let’s take a look at three of the most popular of the “kids and courts” myths and what makes them so dangerous for children.
Myth I: “Judges Protect Children During Divorce.”
That sounds reasonable enough, right? The problem is that judges are not aware of the suffering a child may be experiencing while his/her parents are slugging it out in family court. And even if judges were aware, there isn’t much they can do about it.
Part of the problem is timing. Even in custody and access cases in which judges become involved with children’s issues, that involvement usually doesn’t begin until trial has begun or is imminent. And that’s too late to protect against the kind of psychological damage that custody battles and other high-conflict divorces can inflict upon children.
The risk of such damage is substantial. Extensive research has established that the kind of prolonged parental conflict present in these battles is toxic to children who experience it. And as if that weren’t bad enough, battles over children during a divorce (“fully contested divorces”) also deprives children of the very things they need most.
What are those things? A “Top 4 List” of the needs of children of divorce would read something like this:
An end to their parents’ fighting
An end to uncertainty about where and with whom they will be living
A return to some degree of normalcy in their lives
Security in knowing that their parents will continue to love and care for them
Custody/access battles typically deprive children of not 1 or 2, but all of the above.
It’s true that at trial, family judges try to do what’s in children’s best interests. But that doesn’t eliminate the impact of months of anxiety and stress for children whose parents are too embroiled in their own conflict to attend to the needs of their kids.
Nor can judges spare children the awful experience of the custody/access evaluation process. In fact, judges rely on that process for information and assessments to use in deciding cases. Furthermore, judges don’t supervise the process; by the time a case comes before a judge for trial, the evaluation is done.
The bottom line is that even the most conscientious judges are not in a position to offer relief to children suffering the emotional impact of high-conflict divorce. No one can protect children from high-conflict divorce except parents dedicated to avoiding it by working out their differences in their children’s best interests.
Many people are surprised at the research which shows a connection between father absence and an increase in social problems in America including: poverty, teen pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, physical abuse, suicide, substance and alcohol abuse and a host of other troubling social problems. The sad fact is that not only does father absence hurt children, fathers suffer as well.
Developing positive relationships with their children encourages and motivates fathers to lead more constructive lives, even in the most difficult of circumstances. For instance, the simple act of regularly writing to their children from prison improves outcomes for incarcerated fathers, including increasing their odds of training for, finding, and keeping a job once they reenter society. Evidence shows that fathers who write to their children once a week have a lower risk of violence in prison and recidivism when released. These positive outcomes are multiplied when we study the impact on the children of inmates, and how father contact can change the trend of their children’s lives – even while the father is still incarcerated.
In addition, research and experience tell us that there is a strong correlation between lack of father involvement and many larger social challenges. Sadly, trends are against us. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes, in a study that investigated these trends, 2006 – 2010, “fewer fathers now live with their children” over the period studied. Reasons for this depressing trend include incarceration, non-marital childbearing and other factors.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million children in America, one out of three children in America, now live in biological father-absent homes. Furthermore, according to the national surveys conducted by NFI, 9 in 10 parents believe there is a father absence crisis in America.
This study, an excellent resource on the impact of father-child involvement, also describes how “increased involvement of fathers in their children’s lives has been associated with a range of positive outcomes for the children.”
Fatherhood is in crisis in America, and you can help. By using our evidence-based programs your department, agency, or not-for-profit group can increase father involvement, improve the lives of children everywhere, and reverse negative trends in a wide range of social issues. Or, by becoming an individual activist, you can bring fatherhood programming to your community and help to reduce a host of social ills in your neighborhood.
NFI is a nationally respected, oft-cited, non-profit organization committed to better outcomes for children and our society as a whole. Our research and programs make a positive difference in the relationships between fathers and children – even in cases where a father is not physically present in the home. You don’t have to be a bystander to the fatherhood crisis in America; you can help to turn the tide and help us create a world in which every child has a 24/7 Dad.
We’re just inviting you to take a timeout into the rhythmic ambiance of our breakfast, brunch and/or coffee selections. We are happy whenever you stop by.
Americans for Equal Rights for Fathers 
Parents on the brink of child custody and access battles sometimes find comfort in popular myths that minimize the risks involved to their children. Parents who rely upon those myths do so at the risk of their children’s emotional health.
Let’s take a look at three of the most popular of the “kids and courts” myths and what makes them so dangerous for children.
Myth I: “Judges Protect Children During Divorce.”
That sounds reasonable enough, right? The problem is that judges are not aware of the suffering a child may be experiencing while his/her parents are slugging it out in family court. And even if judges were aware, there isn’t much they can do about it.
Part of the problem is timing. Even in custody and access cases in which judges become involved with children’s issues, that involvement usually doesn’t begin until trial has begun or is imminent. And that’s too late to protect against the kind of psychological damage that custody battles and other high-conflict divorces can inflict upon children.
The risk of such damage is substantial. Extensive research has established that the kind of prolonged parental conflict present in these battles is toxic to children who experience it. And as if that weren’t bad enough, battles over children during a divorce (“fully contested divorces”) also deprives children of the very things they need most.
What are those things? A “Top 4 List” of the needs of children of divorce would read something like this:
An end to their parents’ fighting
An end to uncertainty about where and with whom they will be living
A return to some degree of normalcy in their lives
Security in knowing that their parents will continue to love and care for them
Custody/access battles typically deprive children of not 1 or 2, but all of the above.
It’s true that at trial, family judges try to do what’s in children’s best interests. But that doesn’t eliminate the impact of months of anxiety and stress for children whose parents are too embroiled in their own conflict to attend to the needs of their kids.
Nor can judges spare children the awful experience of the custody/access evaluation process. In fact, judges rely on that process for information and assessments to use in deciding cases. Furthermore, judges don’t supervise the process; by the time a case comes before a judge for trial, the evaluation is done.
The bottom line is that even the most conscientious judges are not in a position to offer relief to children suffering the emotional impact of high-conflict divorce. No one can protect children from high-conflict divorce except parents dedicated to avoiding it by working out their differences in their children’s best interests.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Every child deserves an involved dad.
Many people are surprised at the research which shows a connection between father absence and an increase in social problems in America including: poverty, teen pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, physical abuse, suicide, substance and alcohol abuse and a host of other troubling social problems. The sad fact is that not only does father absence hurt children, fathers suffer as well.
Developing positive relationships with their children encourages and motivates fathers to lead more constructive lives, even in the most difficult of circumstances. For instance, the simple act of regularly writing to their children from prison improves outcomes for incarcerated fathers, including increasing their odds of training for, finding, and keeping a job once they reenter society. Evidence shows that fathers who write to their children once a week have a lower risk of violence in prison and recidivism when released. These positive outcomes are multiplied when we study the impact on the children of inmates, and how father contact can change the trend of their children’s lives – even while the father is still incarcerated.
In addition, research and experience tell us that there is a strong correlation between lack of father involvement and many larger social challenges. Sadly, trends are against us. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes, in a study that investigated these trends, 2006 – 2010, “fewer fathers now live with their children” over the period studied. Reasons for this depressing trend include incarceration, non-marital childbearing and other factors.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million children in America, one out of three children in America, now live in biological father-absent homes. Furthermore, according to the national surveys conducted by NFI, 9 in 10 parents believe there is a father absence crisis in America.
This study, an excellent resource on the impact of father-child involvement, also describes how “increased involvement of fathers in their children’s lives has been associated with a range of positive outcomes for the children.”
Fatherhood is in crisis in America, and you can help. By using our evidence-based programs your department, agency, or not-for-profit group can increase father involvement, improve the lives of children everywhere, and reverse negative trends in a wide range of social issues. Or, by becoming an individual activist, you can bring fatherhood programming to your community and help to reduce a host of social ills in your neighborhood.
NFI is a nationally respected, oft-cited, non-profit organization committed to better outcomes for children and our society as a whole. Our research and programs make a positive difference in the relationships between fathers and children – even in cases where a father is not physically present in the home. You don’t have to be a bystander to the fatherhood crisis in America; you can help to turn the tide and help us create a world in which every child has a 24/7 Dad.
Thank you for your interest and support,
The National Fatherhood Initiative® Team http://www.fatherhood.org/social-problems-in-america
LikeLiked by 3 people
LikeLiked by 3 people
LikeLiked by 2 people
LikeLiked by 3 people
LikeLiked by 2 people
LikeLiked by 1 person