Opinion ID: 1278760
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Majority Opinion Misconstrues the Actual Effect of the Final Judgment.

Text: The trial court did not, as the majority erroneously states, simply den[y] [Mr. Taylor] any visitation with his nine-year-old daughter Sidney. To the contrary, the trial court expressly found that it is in the best interests of the minor child that she has [sic] no visitation and no contact of any kind  with Mr. Taylor. (Emphasis added.) The trial court repeated its no contact formulation twice more in the succeeding paragraphs of the final judgment. Not coincidentally, the trial court simultaneously terminated Mr. Taylor's child support obligation. The plain language of the final judgment bars Mr. Taylor not only from having any future in-person visitation with Sidney, but from participating in her life in any way. Under the terms of the final judgment, Mr. Taylor cannot communicate with his own child in any way, shape, fashion, or form. Mr. Taylor cannot talk to his daughter on the telephone. He cannot acknowledge her presence if he runs into her at the grocery store. He cannot attend any of her school or extracurricular functions. He cannot give her a Christmas present. He cannot write her a letter or even send her a card on her birthday. There is no discernible endpoint to the onerous restrictions the trial court placed on Mr. Taylor's parental rights. The final judgment does not specify any conditions under which Mr. Taylor would be allowed to become involved in his daughter's life again. It does not say, for example, If you do X, Y, and Z, you can resume talking to Sidney on the telephone. Given the facts of this case, it is difficult to imagine what those conditions might be. Stop using marijuana long enough that we can be sure your recovery is genuine? Mr. Taylor has already done that. Attend long-term counseling to help you find better ways to deal with your anger management issues? Check. Demonstrate your commitment to Sidney by paying child support regularly for at least a year? Done. Submit to limited, costly, and closely supervised visitation for months on end to prove you can behave yourself and interact appropriately with your child? Also done. Nor is it any answer to say that Mr. Taylor can always ask the trial court to modify its visitation ruling in the future. In order to succeed, Mr. Taylor would have to demonstrate a material change in circumstances warranting reexamination of the initial determination regarding visitation. Mr. Taylor will not be able to satisfy this requirement by overcoming his addiction to marijuana, demonstrating his love for Sidney and his commitment to her consistently and in tangible ways, successfully completing extended counseling programs, behaving appropriately towards Sidney over the course of long-term supervised visitation, or securing an appropriate place for overnight visitation with Sidney, because he has already done all these things. Moreover, the parent-child bond between Sidney and Mr. Taylor will only deteriorate with each passing day that he is not allowed to speak to her, write to her, or even see her. The judgment affirmed by the majority opinion indefinitely bars all future interaction and communication between Mr. Taylor and Sidney under circumstances where there is no realistic possibility that the ban will ever be lifted in the future. If such a drastic disruption of an existing parent-child relationship by the government is not an infringement on a parent's constitutional right to the care and custody of his or her children, then that right is hollow indeed.