Opinion ID: 1149593
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Form of Hearing or Procedure

Text: The State contends that the undesignated natural father's opportunity to oppose the adoption and to attempt to show that it is not in the child's best interest is all the process that is due. [3] We disagree. The best interest hearing does not afford the natural father any opportunity to object to the termination of his rights to claim custody of right and to veto, or withhold consent to, the adoption. The sole issue at such a hearing is the interest of the child, not any interest of the natural parents. The natural father is not entitled to object to the deprivation of his rights at the best interest hearing; he is merely given a chance to show that the best interests of the child will not be promoted by the adoption. Furthermore, the best interest hearing occurs after he has been deprived of his rights, not before. While many controversies have raged about the due process clause, it is fundamental that except in emergency situations (and this is not one) due process requires that when a State seeks to terminate a protected interest, it must afford notice and an opportunity for hearing appropriate to the nature of the case before the termination becomes effective. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 91 S.Ct. 780, 28 L.Ed.2d 113 (1971); Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 91 S.Ct. 1586, 29 L.Ed.2d 90 (1971). Accordingly, we find that there must be some opportunity for a hearing, at which it should be determined whether the natural father has attempted to exercise his right to establish and maintain a relationship with the child, or alternatively whether he has waived that right. We reject any suggestion that we need not consider the propriety of the termination of V.L.'s rights to custody and to veto the adoption because he might be able to regain his child by defeating the adoption. The suggestion is that if V.L. has been deprived of a protected interest without due process, the deprivation is immaterial and not legally cognizable for the purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment because it may yet be rectified. As the Supreme Court observed in Stanley v. Illinois , however, we have not embraced the general proposition that a wrong may be done if it can be undone. Cf. Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp., 395 U.S. 337, 89 S.Ct. 1820, 23 L.Ed.2d 349 (1969). Surely, in the case before us, if there is delay between the doing and the undoing petitioner suffers from the deprivation of his child[], and the child[] suffer[s] from uncertainty and dislocation. 405 U.S. at 647, 92 S.Ct. at 1210-11, 31 L.Ed.2d at 556. The rather sparse opportunity of an unwed father whose children have been taken away to regain them by defeating the adoption upon a showing that it is not in the best interests of the children does not satisfy the requirements of procedural due process.