Fundamental rights receive the highest constitutional protection.
Such constitutional protection of parental rights is clearly within the original intent of the Constitution's Framers. The Washington State law had allowed any third party to visit a child, even against the wishes of the parents. The Washington State Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional on its face. The U.S. Supreme Court's plurality opinion, however, did not go that far, but held only that the mother's rights had been violated in this case. No single opinion was backed by a majority of justices.