Source: http://volokh.com/2009/10/12/more-discrimination-in-child-custody-cases-against-the-less-religiously-practicing-parent/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 16:28:33+00:00

Document:
Now it might well be that regular churchgoing is indeed in a child’s best interests. Or maybe regular churchgoing is against a child’s best interests. It seems to me, though, that the First Amendment keeps the government — including courts — from taking a stand on this in deciding people’s parental rights, at least in the absence of actual evidence of imminent harm to the child (as opposed to speculation about whether religiosity is good or bad). For more examples of this happening in other states, see this set of posts. For more general thoughts on the Constitution in child custody cases, see this post. If you’re really interested, you could have a look at my article on Parent-Child Speech and Child Custody Speech Restrictions, 81 NYU L. Rev. 631 (2006), which discusses the Religion Clauses issues as well as the Free Speech Clause issue. Finally, for cases holding (in my view correctly) that a parent’s lack of religiosity generally ought not be a factor in custody decisions, see Placencia v. Placencia, 3 S.W.3d 497, 502 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1999); In re Marriage of Oswald, 847 P.2d 251, 253 (Colo. Ct. App. 1993); Burrows v. Brady, 605 A.2d 1312, 1317 (R.I. 1992); Elbert v. Elbert, 579 N.E.2d 102, 110 (Ind. Ct. App. 1991); Eastes v. Eastes, 590 S.W.2d 405, 408 (Mo. Ct. App. 1979); Wilson v. Wilson, 473 P.2d 595, 598–99 (Wyo. 1970); Welker v. Welker, 129 N.W.2d 134, 138 (Wis. 1964); Maxey v. Bell, 41 Ga. 183, 185–86 (1870).

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