Know Your Rights

The United States Supreme Court has recognized the right of parents to be an active and integral part of their children’s lives as “perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by [the Supreme] Court.” Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (U.S. 2000)

YOU have the right to direct the education and the upbringing of your child(ren).

The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution embodies three different protections: (1) a procedural due process protection requiring the state to provide individuals with some type of process before depriving them of their life, liberty, or property; (2) a substantive due process protection, which protects individuals from arbitrary acts that deprive them of life, liberty, or property; and (3) an incorporation of specific protections afforded by the Bill of Rights against the states.

A Fundamental right may only be limited in circumstances where the government’s interest in a specific matter of public importance outweighs the individual’s fundamental right, and where the limitation on the fundamental right is as narrow as possible for achievement of an important governmental goal.

To determine whether a person’s familial association rights have been violated in this factual setting, a court must weigh two factors: the state’s interests in investigating reports of child abuse, and the parent’s interests in his familial right of association.

Be mindful that there are exceptions to immunities of government officials in the Family Court System.

Absolute Immunity is defined as  a type of sovereign immunity for government officials that confers complete immunity from criminal prosecution and suits for damages, so long as officials are acting within the scope of their duties.*

*If government officials are NOT acting within the scope of their duties, this type of immunity does NOT apply. 

Qualified immunity is defined as a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.

OUR NEXT LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE

To help your case and be proactive to effectuate state and national change, please contact the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families by clicking HERE

The Parent Committee is the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Within that Committee, is the Subcommittee on Children and Families. Senator Robert Casey is the Majority Head of that Subcommittee (D-PA).

FAN PAC, along with other national organizations, is assembling a panel of National experts on Family Court Reform and Civil Rights

If you are interested in helping your situation and being involved in this legislative effort, please fill out the form below