Opinion ID: 2257561
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Heading: Development of Parental Rights

Text: Historically, parents have maintained complete discretion over what caretakers to trust, what associations to encourage, and what role models to endorse. Pursuant to the early common law, children were the chattels of their parents, who could do as they wished with the child. Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, `Who Owns the Child?': Meyer and Pierce and the Child as Property, 33 Wm. & Mary L.Rev. 995, 1037 (Summer 1992) (hereinafter Child as Property) (children were treated as assets of estates in which fathers had a vested right. . . . Their services, earnings, and the like became the property of their paternal masters in exchange for life and maintenance.) (internal quotation marks omitted); Hernandez v. Thomas, 50 Fla. 522, 39 So. 641, 642 (1905) (holding mother's deathbed designation of the grandmother as a guardian for her children ineffective because only the father has the right of testamentary disposition and father had consigned the children to an orphanage); Eustice v. Plymouth Coal Co., 120 Pa. 299, 13 A. 975 (1888) (ordering thirteen-year-old boy's wages paid directly to his parent). Early cases emphasized the right of the parent, superior to all others, to the care and custody of the child. See, e.g., Norris v. Pilmore, 1 Yeates 405 (Pa.1794) (suit by mother and master against clergyman for marrying minor child without her permission and against apprenticeship agreement); Pease v. Burt, 3 Day 485 (Conn.1806) (noting that a parent has the right to control person of the child); In re Deming, 10 Johns. 483 (N.Y.1813) (holding that a man sentenced to life and subsequently pardoned resumes right to custody and control of his children); Inhabitants of Dedham v. Inhabitants of Natick, 16 Mass. 135, 1819 WL 1485,  (1819) (concluding that widow assumes the role as head of her family with all parental rights and children cannot, by law, be separated from her). This right could be dissolved only by abandonment, surrender, or unfitness. See Stansbury v. Bertron, 7 Watts & Serg. 362 (Pa.1844); Moritz v. Garnhart, 7 Watts 302 (Pa.1838); see also In re Salter, 142 Cal. 412, 76 P. 51, 52 (1904) (holding that court has no discretion to appoint grandmother as guardian of a child if father is not incompetent); Harper v. Tipple, 21 Ariz. 41, 184 P. 1005, 1006 (1919) (determining that child who lived over three years with the grandparents must be transferred to the custody of the father, absent a clear showing of incompetency). This centralization of authority was a necessary function of state reliance on parents to raise their children to be functionally responsible citizens and to keep them from being a drain on state and municipal coffers. The belief was that, in order to carry out these duties effectively, parents required the authority to act in the interest of their children without state interference. Further, the law presumed that the parent is able to display the maturity, wisdom, judgment, and experience that the child lacks. This doctrine of parental preference survives in a somewhat modified form in the presumption that a biologic parent will act in his or her child's best interests. Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 120 S.Ct. 2054, 147 L.Ed.2d 49 (2000) (plurality opinion). Procedure by presumption [, however] is always cheaper and easier than individualized determination. Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 656-57, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972). But when, as here, the procedure forecloses the determinative issues of competence and care, when it explicitly disdains present realities in deference to past formalities, it needlessly risks running roughshod over the important interests of both parent and child . . . [and][i]t therefore cannot stand. Id. Although federal and state statutes do not identify parental rights, they do receive constitutional protection through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Pierce v. Soc'y of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923). Although often expressed as a liberty interest, childrearing autonomy is rooted in the right to privacy. Meyer involved a Nebraska statute that prohibited the teaching of any foreign language to a child prior to the eighth grade. The Court held the statute unconstitutional stating that [w]ithout doubt, [liberty] denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual . . . to marry, establish a home and bring up children.. . . [I]t is the natural duty of the parent to give his children education suitable to their situation in life. Id. at 399-400, 43 S.Ct. 625. The Commonwealth relied on the reasoning of Meyer in Commonwealth v. Bey, 166 Pa.Super. 136, 70 A.2d 693 (1950). In Pierce, the Court addressed a state statute that prohibited children from attending non-public schools. Again, the Court determined that the law unreasonably interfere[d] with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control. Pierce, 268 U.S. at 534-35, 45 S.Ct. 571. In In re William L., 477 Pa. 322, 383 A.2d 1228, 1232 n. 4 (1978), this Court observed that a statute prescribing any particular mode of child rearing would likely be unconstitutional. Later, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943), the Court reaffirmed these principles in concluding that a statute requiring children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance over parental objection violated the parents' rights. These became the foundation cases for the federal theory of family. However, as the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine articulated in Rideout v. Riendeau : The constitutional liberty interest in family integrity is not, however, absolute, nor forever free from state interference. The Due Process Clause is not an impenetrable wall behind which parents may shield their children; rather, it provides heightened protection against state intervention in parents' fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children. Rideout v. Riendeau, 761 A.2d 291, 299 (Me.2000) (internal citations omitted). But the state maintains an interest in the welfare of its children and may limit parental autonomy if it appears that parental decisions will jeopardize the health or safety of the child, or have a potential for significant social burdens. Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 232, 92 S.Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972). Accord Ex parte Crouse, 4 Whart. 9, 1839 WL 3700  (Pa.1839) (observing that when parents are incapable of fulfilling parental duties and responsibilities, the biologic parents can be superseded by parens patriae ).