In 2000 in Troxel v. Granville, four United States Supreme Court justices determined that the “liberty interests of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children” generally foreclose states from compelling ...

American state parentage laws have evolved significantly in the past half century in response to changes in both reproductive technologies and human conduct. Yet further evolution, if not a revolution, seems inevitable. ...

American state parentage laws have traditionally required biological or adoptive ties and no more than two parents for any one child at any one time. Biological ties were demonstrated by giving birth or sperm. Adoptive ...

In Illinois, the “liberty interests of parents” are reflected in the “superior rights doctrine,” which holds, as elsewhere, that parents have superior rights regarding the care of their children. This doctrine is necessitated ...

Unlike other federal constitutional rightsholders, a parent with the federal constitutional right to exercise “care, custody, and control” over a child is defined by state lawmakers. While federal constitutional childcare ...

An Illinois Appellate Court recently ruled that a custodial parent requesting a court order allowing removal of a child from Illinois must be shown to be in the child’s best interests by a preponderance of the evidence, ...

Not too long ago American state laws chiefly designated parentage at precise moments in time. One became a parent upon giving birth; upon having one’s spouse give birth; upon formal adoption; upon completion of a birth ...

Recognizing the need for reforms involving, inter alia, parental and third-party childcare interests, the Illinois General Assembly created a study committee, resulting in several proposed amendments to the Illinois Parentage ...

Even without a majority rationale, the opinions in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), support the notion that there are federal constitutional “liberty interests of parents in the care, custody, and control of their ...

The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that the regulation of certain areas of domestic relations, including standing to seek a childcare order, rests within the virtually exclusive province of the states. State lawmakers ...