Opinion ID: 2197540
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: due process rights of richard

Text: The final argument raised both by the Does and Richard's guardian ad litem is that Richard himself has a liberty interest in the familial relationship he has developed with the Does. In making this argument, the Does and the guardian ad litem fail to address the liberty interest Richard may have in being with his natural father. The United States Supreme Court has never decided whether a child has a liberty interest symmetrical with that of a natural parent in maintaining his current relationship. ( Michael H. v. Gerald D. (1989), 491 U.S. 110, 130, 109 S.Ct. 2333, 2346, 105 L.Ed.2d 91, 110-11.) Attempts to assert such a right on behalf of children who have become psychologically attached to a nonparent have not met with success. (See In re Baby Girl Clausen (1993), 442 Mich. 648, 502 N.W.2d 649.) We likewise hold that no such liberty interest exists as regards Richard's psychological attachment to the Does. To hold otherwise would be to overturn the entire jurisprudential history of parental rights in Illinois. In Smith v. Organization of Foster Families for Equality & Reform (1977), 431 U.S. 816, 97 S.Ct. 2094, 53 L.Ed.2d 14, one of the questions before the Supreme Court was whether foster children who have lived in a foster home for an extended period of time, and who have developed a psychological bond with the foster family, have a liberty interest in remaining with that foster family. In addressing this issue, the Court declined to decide whether such a liberty interest existed. Rather, the Court determined that the procedural safeguards employed by New York in removing children from their foster families were constitutionally sufficient to protect whatever interest might be at issue. ( Smith, 431 U.S. at 847-56, 97 S.Ct. at 2111-15, 53 L.Ed.2d at 37-42.) The Court did, however, make clear that as between foster parents and natural parents, any such liberty interest on the part of the child was substantially attenuated absent a finding of unfitness or the like. Smith, 431 U.S. at 846-47, 97 S.Ct. at 2110-11, 53 L.Ed.2d at 36-37. The concurring justices argued that the majority was illogical in considering due process as regards the removal of children from foster families without first establishing that there was a liberty interest, an interest the majority declined to assert existed. ( Smith, 431 U.S. at 858-59, 97 S.Ct. at 2117, 53 L.Ed.2d at 44.) The concurring justices further noted that the grievous losses, psychological, emotional and otherwise, that foster children might suffer upon removal to another family did not, in and of themselves, create a liberty interest in the continued maintenance of that relationship. ( Smith, 431 U.S. at 858, 97 S.Ct. at 2117, 53 L.Ed.2d at 44.) Rather, it is the nature and not the weight of the purported loss that determines whether a liberty interest exists. ( Smith, 431 U.S. at 858, 97 S.Ct. at 2117, 53 L.Ed.2d at 44; see also Board of Regents v. Roth (1972), 408 U.S. 564, 570-71, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705-06, 33 L.Ed.2d 548, 557.) Turning then to the nature of the liberty interest asserted by the foster children to the continued placement with their foster parents, the concurring justices stated they would squarely hold that the interests asserted by the foster children are not of a kind that the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment protects. ( Smith, 431 U.S. at 858, 97 S.Ct. at 2117, 53 L.Ed.2d at 44.) While children have a due process liberty interest in their family life, that interest is not independent of the child's natural parents' interest absent a finding of unfitness. A similar conclusion is compelled in the instant case. As Justice Stewart concluded in Smith upon considering the rights of foster families vis-a-vis natural parents to the care, custody and control of the children: If a State were to attempt to force the breakup of a natural family, over the objections of the parents and their children, without some showing of unfitness and for the sole reason that to do so was thought to be in the children's best interest,    [this] would have intruded impermissibly on `the private realm of family life which the state cannot enter.' ( Smith, 431 U.S. at 862-63, 97 S.Ct. at 2119, 53 L.Ed.2d at 46-47, quoting Prince v. Massachusetts (1944), 321 U.S. 158, 166, 64 S.Ct. 438, 442, 88 L.Ed. 645, 652.) Likewise, the putative family relationship that the Does have deceitfully established with Richard, and which has come about in derogation of the procedural safeguards afforded fit fathers under the Adoption Act, cannot now be legitimated.