Opinion ID: 1956270
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitutional footings

Text: Some functional family relationships, as well as formal family values, deserve and receive constitutional recognition and procedural due process: The rights to conceive and to raise one's children have been deemed essential, Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399 [43 S.Ct. 625, 626, 67 L.Ed. 1042] (1923), basic civil rights of man, Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 [62 S.Ct. 1110, 1113, 86 L.Ed. 1655] (1942), and [r]ights far more precious ... than property rights, May v. Anderson, 345 U.S. 528, 533 [73 S.Ct. 840, 843, 97 L.Ed. 1221] (1953). It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder. Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166 [64 S.Ct. 438, 442, 88 L.Ed. 645] (1944). The integrity of the family unit has found protection in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Meyer v. Nebraska, supra, [262 U.S.], at 399 [43 S.Ct. at 626], the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Skinner v. Oklahoma, supra, [316 U.S.], at 541 [62 S.Ct. at 1113], and the Ninth Amendment, Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 496 [85 S.Ct. 1678, 1688, 14 L.Ed.2d 510] (1965) (Goldberg, J., concurring). Nor has the law refused to recognize those family relationships unlegitimized by a marriage ceremony .... Levy v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 68, 71-72 [88 S.Ct. 1509, 1511, 20 L.Ed.2d 436] (1968). To say that, the test of equal protection should be the `legal' rather than the biological relationship is to avoid the issue. For the Equal Protection Clause necessarily limits the authority of a State to draw such `legal' lines as its chooses. Glona v. American Guarantee Co., 391 U.S. 73, 75-76, 88 S.Ct. 1515, 1516, 20 L.Ed.2d 441 (1968). Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651-52, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 1212-13, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972) (denial to unwed father of hearing on fitness, accorded to all other parents whose custody of their children is challenged by the State, constitutes a denial of equal protection of the laws). These constitutional footings led directly to the design of the Uniform Parentage Act.