Abstract
The United States Supreme Court has recognized that parental rights implicate fundamental interests and that statutes adversely affecting those rights require close examination. However, the Court has been inconsistent in both its analysis and results when deciding which statutes burdening parental rights nonetheless pass constitutional muster. The Court’s ambivalence and lack of clarity have made parental rights jurisprudence confused and confusing, as illustrated by the dissensus among the state supreme courts regarding which visitation statutes are constitutional. Yet, this jurisprudential quagmire cannot be blamed on one particular decision, as if a single clarification or modification could resolve the problem. Rather, the jurisprudence is rife with analyses both asserting and undermining parental rights; it must be significantly revised if it is to provide helpful guidance to legislatures and lower courts. The Court must take more seriously its obligation to discern and apply constitutional tests with respect to families—the integrity of families and the best interests of children hang in the balance.
Recommended Citation
Mark Strasser,
The Varying Strength of Parental Rights,
91 Mo. L. Rev.
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Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol91/iss2/8