Opinion ID: 2075762
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the unwed father's opportunity interest

Text: H.R. contends he has a substantial liberty interest under the due process clause in developing a parental relationship with his son. I agree. The Supreme Court has long recognized that state intervention in the relationship between a parent and child is subject to constitutional oversight, see Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 535, 45 S.Ct. 571, 573, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399-401, 43 S.Ct. 625, 626-27, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923). And, of course, fifty years ago in Stuart the United States Court of Appeals identified the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children as a constitutional right. 72 App.D.C. at 396, 114 F.2d 825. More recently, the Supreme Court has reiterated that the relationship of love and duty in a recognized family unit is an interest in liberty entitled to constitutional protection. Lehr, 463 U.S. at 257, 103 S.Ct. at 2991. The Court, however, in discussing the interests of unwed fathers in preventing termination of their relationships with their children, has treated differently the claims of fathers who have had custodial relationships with their children by the time of the termination proceeding and those who have not. In Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972), the state placed the children of unwed parents in guardianship after their mother's death over objection of their natural father, who had lived with and supported them all their lives. The Court held, as a matter of due process and equal protection, that the state could not deprive the father of custody without notice, hearing, and proof of his unfitness for parenthood. Several years later, moreover, in Caban v. Mohammed, 441 U.S. 380, 99 S.Ct. 1760, 60 L.Ed.2d 297 (1979), the Court struck down a New York statute that permitted consent to adoption exclusively by the mother of a child born out-of-wedlock. As in Stanley, the natural father had lived with his two children and their mother, and supported them, for several years. After the mother had left with the children, remarried, and gained legal custody, the mother's new husband sought to adopt the children over the natural father's objection. The New York courts applied the statute and granted the adoption. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that, by permitting such adoption without consent of the father, the statute imposed a gender-based discrimination that did not bear a substantial relation to some important state interest, in violation of the equal protection clause. The Court eschewed discrimination against unwed fathers ... when their identity is known and they have manifested a significant paternal interest in the child. The facts of this case illustrate the harshness of classifying unwed fathers as being invariably less qualified and entitled than mothers to exercise a concerned judgment as to the fate of their children. Id. at 394, 99 S.Ct. at 1769. In contrast, in Quilloin v. Wolcott, 434 U.S. 246, 255, 98 S.Ct. 549, 554, 54 L.Ed.2d 511 (1978), where the unwed father had not at any time, had, or sought, actual or legal custody of his child, the Court upheld an adoption decree terminating the father's parental rights under Georgia's best interests of the child standard and granting legal custody to the eleven-year-old child's mother and stepfather. In upholding the adoption, the Court stated that due process would no doubt be violated if the state were to attempt to force the breakup of a natural family on the basis of the children's best interest without some showing of parental unfitness. Id. (quoting Smith v. Organization of Foster Families For Equality and Reform, 431 U.S. 816, 862-63, 97 S.Ct. 2094, 2119, 53 L.Ed.2d 14 (1977) (Stewart, J., concurring in judgment)). But, the Court noted, the result of the adoption was to give full recognition to a family unit already in existence. Quilloin, 434 U.S. at 255, 98 S.Ct. at 555. The Court implied that the outcome would have been different if the proposed adoption had placed the child with a new set of parents with whom the child had never before lived. Id. Read together, these cases say that an unwed natural father who has had a custodial relationship with his child cannot be ousted as a parent at the mother's behest absent a showing of his unfitnessin favor of a foster parent ( Stanley ) or an adoptive stepfather ( Caban ), but that an unwed father who has not developed a custodial relationship, though fit to be a parent, can lose his parental rights to an adoptive stepfather when the best interests of the child preclude disruption of a family unit already in existence ( Quilloin ). [23] What, then, is to occur if an unwed father (1) has never had a relationship with his child but (2) seeks custody when a proposed adoption would place the child with a new set of parents with whom the child had never before lived? Quilloin, 434 U.S. at 255, 98 S.Ct. at 555. The Court addressed that questionat issue in this casein Lehr. Basically, the Court concluded the answer turns on how early and persistently the natural father pursues his interest in taking custody of the child so as to justify keeping the father presumptively first in line, so to speak, when the natural mother elects to put the child up for adoption. According to the Court in Lehr, when an unwed father demonstrates a full commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood by `com[ing] forward to participate in the rearing of his child,' Caban, 441 U.S. at 392, 99 S.Ct. at 1768, his interest in personal contact with his child acquires substantial protection under the Due Process Clause. Lehr, 463 U.S. at 261, 103 S.Ct. at 2993. The Court noted that the mere existence of a biological link does not merit equivalent constitutional protection. Id. But, [t]he significance of the biological connection is that it offers the natural father an opportunity that no other male possesses to develop a relationship with his offspring. If he grasps that opportunity and accepts some measure of responsibility for the child's future, he may enjoy the blessings of the parent-child relationship and make uniquely valuable contributions to the child's development. Id. at 262, 103 S.Ct. at 2993 (emphasis added). Thus, the Court has characterized the unwed, noncustodial father's protectible liberty interest as an opportunity he must grasp[]. Courts and commentators accordingly have relabelled this particular liberty interest of a natural father as his opportunity interest. See In re Baby Girl Eason, 257 Ga. 292, 358 S.E.2d 459 (1987); Buchanan, The Constitutional Rights of Unwed Fathers Before and After Lehr v. Robertson, 45 OHIO ST. L.J. 313, 351-53 (1984) [hereinafter Buchanan, Constitutional Rights ]. It follows that a noncustodial, unwed father who has grasped his opportunity interest will, as a matter of substantive constitutional right, be in the same position as the custodial father in Stanley: entitled to an individualized hearing on fitness. 405 U.S. 645, 657 n. 9, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 1215 n. 9. See Buchanan, Constitutional Rights, at 354, 373. Because a noncustodial father may not grasp the opportunity to develop a relationship with his child in a timely, meaningful manner, his eventual assertion of his opportunity interest may be too late and thus not entitled to the constitutional protection available to a custodial father. In Lehr, for example, the Court upheld against a due process challenge an adoption decree granting legal custody to the child's mother and stepfather, even though the natural father had not been notified of, or allowed to participate in, the adoption proceeding. By the time the petition for adoption was filed, Lehr had failed to establish a parental relationship with his two-year-old daughter attributable in large part to the mother's desire to prevent contact between them. Significantly, however, Lehr also had failed to submit his name to New York's putative father registry, an action that would have guaranteed he received notice of any action to terminate his parental rights. Lehr, 463 U.S. at 250-52, 103 S.Ct. at 2987-89. The Supreme Court concluded that, under the circumstances, the New York statutory scheme, designed to protect the unmarried father's interest in assuming a responsible role in the future of his child, provided sufficient process by guaranteeing putative fathers who have never developed a relationship with the child the opportunity to receive notice simply by mailing a postcard to the putative father registry. Id. at 262 n. 18, 103 S.Ct. at 2993 n. 18. Because Lehr did not have a significant custodial, personal, or financial relationship with his child at the time notice would have been sent, id. at 263, 103 S.Ct. at 2994, and because he had failed to take advantage of his statutory right to establish a legal tie, the Court concluded there was no due process violation in terminating his parental rights without advance notice. Id. at 265, 103 S.Ct. at 2995. According to the Court, Lehr's failure to avail himself of state statutory protections meant that he was not entitled to notice. The Constitution does not require either a trial judge or a litigant to give special notice to nonparties who are presumptively capable of asserting and protecting their own rights. Id. at 265, 103 S.Ct. at 2995. In short, the Supreme Court concluded that the putative father registry scheme afforded Lehr the minimum notice Stanley required, see Lehr, 463 U.S. at 263-64 & n. 20, 103 S.Ct. at 2994-95 & n. 20, and that the proposed adoption was responsive to Quilloin's support for recognition of a family unit already in existence. Id. at 262 & n. 19, 103 S.Ct. at 2994 & n. 19. Lehr, therefore, limits the situations in which the state must take account of a father with only an opportunity interest. Buchanan, Constitutional Rights, at 354. But Lehr implies that an unwed father who does grasp his opportunity interest may be as constitutionally protected as the custodial father in Stanley. See Buchanan, Constitutional Rights, at 373.
Lehr is significant, therefore, especially for the present case, because the Supreme Court announced for the first time how an unwed father can receive constitutional protection of his interest in a child with whom he has not had a custodial relationship. Lehr makes clear that, in a proceeding to determine child custody, a noncustodial, unwed father who moves quickly and responsibly can achieve constitutionally mandated priority over prospective adoptive parents who have received the child at birth and do not yet have an established family relationship with that child. See Buchanan, Constitutional Rights, at 373. I therefore turn, more specifically, to what it means for a noncustodial father to grasp his opportunity interest in a manner entitling him to constitutional protection. As Lehr illustrates, a natural father who fails promptly to assert his opportunity interest in developing a relationship with his child may forever lose that interest. See Eason, 257 Ga. at 295, 358 S.E.2d at 462 (opportunity interest not indestructible). Elizabeth Buchanan notes, moreover, that [c]hildren are not static objects. They grow and develop, and their proper growth and development require more than day-to-day satisfaction of their physical needs. Their growth and development also require day-to-day satisfaction of their emotional needs, and a primary emotional need is for permanence and stability.... That need for early assurance of permanence and stability is an essential factor in the constitutional determination of whether to protect a parent's relationship with his or her child. The basis for constitutional protection is missing if the parent seeking it does not take on the parental responsibilities timely. The opportunity is fleeting. If it is not, or cannot, be grasped in time, it will be lost. Buchanan, Constitutional Rights, at 364 (footnotes omitted). Of course, once the state places an infant with a prospective adoptive family, the natural father is precluded from establishing a parental relationship with his child, and any failure to establish personal, custodial, or financial ties with the child after such placement cannot automatically be characterized as abandonment. On the other hand, at least two courts have found relevant to a finding of abandonment the fact that a natural father knew of the mother's pregnancy but failed to express an interest in a parental role or to assume any responsibility for the pregnancy or the newborn before adoptive parents assumed custody of his child near the time of the child's birth. See, e.g., In re Adoption of Baby Boy D, 742 P.2d 1059, 1068 (Okla.1985) (unwed father not entitled to substantial constitutional protection where he knew of pregnancy, yet made no attempt to assist mother financially during pregnancy, pay for expenses related to childbirth, or learn when and where child was to be born), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1072, 108 S.Ct. 1042, 98 L.Ed.2d 1005 (1988); In re Adoption of Doe, 543 So.2d 741, 749 (Fla.1989) (not unconstitutional to deny substantial due process protection to father who fails to provide prebirth assistance to mother when he is able and assistance is needed). As the Supreme Court of Florida recently stated: Because prenatal care of the pregnant mother and unborn child is critical to the well-being of the child and of society, the biological father, wed or unwed, has a responsibility to provide support during the prebirth period. [A] natural father's argument that he has no parental responsibility prior to birth and that his failure to provide prebirth support is irrelevant to the issue of abandonment is not a norm that society is prepared to recognize. Such an argument is legally, morally, and socially indefensible. Id. at 746. In sum, a court evaluating a father's assertion of his opportunity interest is entitled to focus on the extent of the father's involvement as soon as he learns of the pregnancy. On the other hand, the court must also recognize the limitations state action can impose on a noncustodial father once the child is placed with another family. Given the caselaw to date, I believe the question whether a particular unwed, noncustodial father's opportunity interest will be entitled to substantial protection under the due process clause depends upon application of such factors as (1) the presence or absence of an established relationship between the child and an existing family; (2) whether the father has established a custodial, personal, or financial relationship with his child, or assumed responsibilities during the mother's pregnancy; (3) the impact, if any, of state action on the father's opportunity to establish a relationship with his child; (4) the age of the child when the action to terminate parental rights is initiated; and (5) the natural father's invocation or disregard of statutory safeguards designed to protect his opportunity interest. Considering these factors, I conclude that, when an unwed mother has relinquished her right to custody of a child at birth for adoption by strangers, the unwed father's interest in developing a custodial relationship with his child is entitled to substantial constitutional protection if he has early on, and continually, done all that he could reasonably have been expected to do under the circumstances to pursue that interest. See Eason, 257 Ga. at 295, 358 S.E.2d at 462 (unwed fathers gain from biological connection an opportunity interest to develop relationship with children which is constitutionally protected); In re Adoption of Lathrop, 2 Kan.App.2d 90, 95, 575 P.2d 894, 898 (1978) (due process requires that natural father who asserts desire for custody of infant child have rights paramount to those of non-parents); In re Adoption of Baby Boy Doe, 717 P.2d 686 (Utah 1986) (termination of unwed father's parental rights violated due process where father unable to assert his rights under statute because he did not know of birth of child); Ellis v. Social Services Dept., 615 P.2d 1250, 1256 (Utah 1980) (due process violated where parental rights are terminated under statute and father not permitted to show he was not afforded a reasonable opportunity to comply with statutory requirements); Shoecraft v. Catholic Social Serv. Bureau, Inc., 222 Neb. 574, 578, 385 N.W.2d 448, 451 (1986) (statutory scheme requiring unwed father to file intent to claim paternity within five days of child's birth may well violate due process rights where father did not know of birth) (dicta), appeal dismissed, 479 U.S. 805, 107 S.Ct. 49, 93 L.Ed.2d 10 (1986).
Before evaluating whether H.R. can be said to have grasped his opportunity interest sufficiently to warrant constitutional protection, we must understand how Lehr where the father was deemed to have abandoned that interestdiffers from the present case in several important respects. In the first place, there are substantial factual differences. This case concerns the rights of a natural father when (1) the natural mother relinquishes her rights to custody of her child at birth, and (2) the petition for adoption is filed by strangers when the child is still an infant. Lehr, in contrast, concerned a stepfather's adoption of a child who, at the time the petition for adoption was filed, had lived for two years in an existing family unit with her natural mother and adoptive father, as in Quilloin. This factual difference has two important implications. First, the Lehr opinion made much of Lehr's failure to have developed a father-daughter relationship with his two-year-old child by the time the adoption petition was filed (even though the mother had taken steps to prevent that relationship). It is impossible, however, to find a failed parental relationship under the facts of the present case. Here, when H.R. finally learned that L.C. had continued her pregnancy to term and given birth to Baby Boy C., the state had already placed the child in an adoptive home, cutting off any possibility for H.R. to establish a parental, custodial, or financial relationship with his child until the official adoption proceedings were resolved. Second, the Supreme Court was unwilling to grant Lehr a constitutionally protected interest because recognition of the natural father's interest at the time the adoption petition was filed would have meant disrupting an existing family relationship among the natural mother, stepfather, and child. Again, in contrast, there were no established family relations in place when the Barker Foundation placed one-month-old Baby Boy C. with the O. family and the adoption petition was filed. Recognition that fathers of newborn infants have a substantial liberty interest in developing parental relations with their children does not disrupt established family relations. See Quilloin, 434 U.S. at 255, 98 S.Ct. at 554 (upholding step-parent adoption resulting in full recognition [of] a family unit already in existence and implying outcome would have been different if proposed adoption had placed the child with a new set of parents with whom the child had never before lived). As Elizabeth Buchanan notes: [W]hen a natural mother formally consents to the adoption of her child by strangers, whether the child is an infant or an older child, the effect of her consent is legal authorization of the placement of the child was a new set of parent figures, not the validation of an already existing parent-child relationship.... Protection of the father's opportunity interest in such circumstances would not run afoul of the public value in early permanence and stability because there would be no present permanence and stability. Protection of the father's opportunity interest, on the other hand, assuming his willingness to take on all of the parental responsibilities, including providing a home for the child, would assure permanence and stability for the future. Buchanan, Constitutional Rights, at 366-67. There is a second major difference between Lehr and this case. In Lehr, private action alone denied the establishment of parental ties between Lehr and his daughter by the time the adoption petition was filed. In the present case, however, state intervention cut off H.R.'s ability to establish parent-child relations with Baby Boy C. Under District of Columbia law, child placement agencies are delegated the government function of accepting the relinquishment of parental rights from natural parents and locating suitable adoptive homes, as well as investigating and reporting to the court about the suitability of the placement and consenting to the adoption. See D.C.Code § 32-1007 (1989); D.C.Code §§ 16-304(d), -307, -309 (1989). Before the adoption petition was filed in this case, the Barker Foundation, a District-licensed child placement agency, was permitted to seek the termination of H.R.'s parental rights before Baby Boy C. had even been born; to accept L.C.'s relinquishment of her parental rights; and to place the baby with the O. family without H.R.'s prior consent or a judicial determination that the placement was suitable for the child. [24] These acts taken by Barker, as well as the proceedings in the Superior Court, constituted state action under the due process clause. See Swayne v. L.D.S. Social Servs., 670 F.Supp. 1537, 1543-44 (D.Utah 1987) (private adoption agencies initiating adoption, and thus terminating parental rights, deemed state actor for purposes of challenging statute); Scott v. Family Ministries, 65 Cal.App.3d 492, 506-07, 135 Cal. Rptr. 430, 434 (1976) (private licensed adoption agencies held state actors in context of establishment clause); see also Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 937, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2753, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982) (state action when deprivation is caused by exercise of right or privilege created by state and party causing deprivation may fairly be called state actor). As Elizabeth Buchanan suggests: [r]ecognition of an opportunity interest in unwed fathers requires a conclusion that if the two elements of a constitutionally protected parent-child relationship are the biological link and commitment to and exercise of custodial responsibility, the state may not deny biological parents the opportunity to establish a protected custodial relationship. Buchanan, Constitutional Rights, at 351 (footnotes omitted). When state action blocks the opportunity for development of a parental relationship between the natural father and child and creates an environment for the development of parental ties between strangers and that child, the state may not then lawfully deny the father his opportunity interest on the basis that the child has developed family relations with prospective adoptive parents before the adoption petition is filed or between the time of the filing and the hearing on the petition. See Lathrop, 2 Kan.App.2d at 95, 575 P.2d at 898 (putative father, who had been prevented from bestowing parental care on child from time of its birth by adoptive parents, cannot be faulted, nor can his parental rights be lessened, by virtue of failing to perform parental responsibilities). The third major distinction between this case and Lehr is that District of Columbia law provides for immediate notice to a natural father upon the filing of a petition for adoption, D.C.Code § 16-306(a) (1989), whereas the New York statute at issue in Lehr provided for notice only to certain classes of putative fathers. As elaborated above, the Supreme Court found Lehr's failure to use the available statutory protection fatal to his constitutional claim. Lehr's failure to register had rendered him, under New York law, a nonparty to the adoption proceeding. H.R., however, unlike Lehr, was guaranteed a right to immediate notice of the filing of the adoption petition under District of Columbia law. D.C.Code § 16-306(a) (1989). By statute, the required initiative is on the government or its designated agent, not on the putative father. The Supreme Court's deference in Lehr to state legislative schemes for protecting natural fathers' rights, therefore, must result in a corresponding deference here: judicial recognition of H.R.'s statutory right to immediate notice in evaluating whether he grasped his opportunity interest. The onus placed on Lehr under the New York statute in no way can be used to diminish H.R.'s right to rely on placement of the burden elsewhere under our local law: the burden rests on the District of Columbia. In short, Lehr, while recognizing an unwed father's opportunity interest, reaffirms the Stanley-Caban-Quilloin concern about disturbing existing family relationships and the Quilloin concern about the failure of the father to assert his interest in timely, committed fashion. Whereas Lehr therefore clarifies the burden the unwed father must carrytimely, continual assertion of his opportunity interest Lehr does not deal with the issue of what happens when unlawful state action both interferes with assertion of the opportunity interest and facilitates creation of a prospective adoptive family intended to take the child from the father. We should not hesitate to conclude, however, that in such circumstances a natural father cannot be held to have abandoned his opportunity interest. See Eason, 257 Ga. at 296, 358 S.E.2d at 463 (unwed father has a constitutionally protected interest which cannot be denied him through state action). There may be other reasons why he should not be entitled to custody but not this one.