McCormack Family Law | Top Divorce Lawyer | Child Custody & Support

This is a troubled question in family law. It mostly arises in cases where a parent objects to a non-parent maintaining or creating an ongoing relationship with a child. For instance, in Ohio, statutes permit just about anyone to request companionship or visitation time with a minor child. The request is generally granted when the court determines that such companionship is in the child’s best interests.

Not all courts agree. In 2000, the United States Supreme Court decided a case known as Troxel v. Granville. In the original case in the State of Washington, the parents of a deceased father requested companionship with their grandchildren; the mother had remarried. The trial court granted companionship based on a ‘best interests’ standard. The Supreme Court of Washington later upheld an appeals court decision that reversed the trial court. The mother’s right to decide trumped the state’s right to substitute its judgment under the guise of best interests.

The case went all the way to the U S Supreme Court. The Court’s decision said that the state could not use its best interest standard for children to overrule the objection of a parent without proof of harm to the child. In other words, the ‘best interests’ standard is not sufficient for a court to substitute its judgment for parental judgment about what is good for children. The Supreme Court affirmed parents’ constitutionally protected right to make decisions regarding their children.

The Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that Ohio companionship statutes meet Constitutional muster. Many practitioners, myself included, believe that federal courts will disagree if the issue comes before them on appeal. They will be inclined to take the view that the Supreme Court took on Troxel, upholding parental rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Does this mean that the parent’s rights triumph in every case? No. In some cases, courts rule against parents in order to prevent harm to children.

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