From: kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy)
Newsgroups: misc.legal
Subject: Re: Right To Not Support
Keywords: Studs'n'Sluts
Date: 15 Aug 92 21:11:42 GMT
Organization: Who, me???

In article <19056@smoke.brl.mil> matt@smoke.brl.mil (Matthew Rosenblatt) writes:
>In article <1992Aug8.022634.23386@cfctech.cfc.com> kevin@cfctech.cfc.com 
>(Kevin Darcy) writes:
>
>>In article <19031@smoke.brl.mil> matt@smoke.brl.mil (Matthew Rosenblatt) 
>>writes:
>
>>>The civil action for support of one's biological child has been around
>>>for a long time.  Under Mr. Darcy's beloved "common law" principles,
>>>it was known as an action for "bastardy," by means of which the father
>>>could be compelled to support the "bastard."   [Matt Rosenblatt]
>
>>References, please?  [Kevin Darcy]
>
>Well, since I don't normally use words like "bastard," I must have been
>quoting from somewhere, right?  As it happens, I was paraphrasing _Black's
>Law Dictionary_, s.v. "Bastardy."  _Black's_ cites a couple of cases, too.

Black's, 5th Ed., entry for "bastard" cites no cases relating to proceedings 
to compel support for "bastards", although the entry under "bastardy" does 
suggest that such proceedings have been instituted by modern STATUTE, but 
does not indicate that they occurred under the Common Law. Inconclusive. 
That's why I asked for references, Mr. Rosenblatt; a legal dictionary alone 
cannot settle this question.

While you're on that page, though, you might want to ponder the meaning of 
the legal maxim _bastardus nullius est filius, aut filius populi_. That
corresponds much more closely to my understanding of how illegitimate 
children were treated under the Common Law. In the handbook _Law of Support_,
3rd Edition, by Frances W.H. Kuchler, 1980, page 38, the statement is made:

	The children who are illegitimate because their parents never married
	present a serious problem as to their support and care. At common law
	such a child was a "son of nobody" and neither parent could be held
	responsible for it.

That's one reference for my interpretation, albeit not particularly
authoritative. Do you have a more authoritative reference for yours?

>>Material I've seen indicates that bastards were 
>>disenfranchised under the common law.  [Kevin Darcy]
>
>Disenfranchised?  Does that mean they couldn't vote?  

I was using the term in its more modern, broad meaning of "to deprive of or 
exclude from anything viewed as a privelege or right" (wording stolen from 
definition (c) of "disfranchise" in the OED Compact Edition, 1991).

>We're not talking
>about voting, so Mr. Darcy must mean something else.  Maybe he means
>that illegitimate children could not *inherit* from their fathers.  OK.
>After a father died, his illegitimate children didn't inherit.  But
>that didn't absolve him, under the common law, of the obligation to
>support his illegitimate minor children when compelled to by an action
>for bastardy.

Still awaiting authoritative references to this alleged Common Law "bastardy" 
action...

>>>Too bad.  I don't feel like paying for some Super-Stud's 
>>>roll in the hay, any more than the Englishmen who came up with 
>>>the common-law action for "bastardy" liked it.  Which means that
>>>compulsory child support from biological fathers who let their
>>                                                      ^^^
>>>offspring make it to term is likely to be around quite a while.
>>>[Matt Rosenblatt]
>
>>Pardon me? Who's "letting" their offspring make it to term?  Not the man.
>>[Kevin Darcy]
>
>He's not rubbing them out with "RU-486," is he?  And why?  Because it's
>illegal?  Ha!  

It's also immoral, IMO.

>It's also illegal to fail to pay court-ordered child
>support, yet plenty of fathers break that law.  

What makes you think I condone that behavior?

>Maybe he's not using
>"RU-486" to prevent the birth of unwanted children because he respects
>his girl-friend's right to control her own body.  In that case, he
>deserves what he gets.

People deserve to be punished for respecting each other's bodily autonomy?

Your ethics sound pretty warped.

								- Kevin
Newsgroups: misc.legal,talk.politics.misc,alt.society.civil-liberty