Opinion ID: 888841
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Consequences of the Court's Decision

Text: ¶ 130 From its emphasis on the facts of this case, it is apparent that the Court has found Kulstad's case to be factually compelling, as did the District Court, and, thus, has ruled in her favor. But the Court has not acknowledged the significance of the most fundamental facts of this case: Maniaci is a parent, and Kulstad is not. This distinction involves much more than semantics. The Court fails to recognize the clearly differing legal rights arising out of this critical distinction between the parties, and that failure leads to consequences that go far beyond the resolution of this particular child custody dispute. ¶ 131 To hold for Kulstad, the Court has, remarkably, withdrawn or narrowed previously recognized constitutional rights of fit parents. It has removed the jurisdictional prerequisite of termination of the natural parents' rights, upholding a statute that allows a third party to establish a parental interest of a child even though that child already has a fit parent. While the initial consequence of this decision falls upon the litigants in this case, consequences of geometric proportion will fall in the future upon many fit parents. The Court's withdrawing of constitutional protection against third party parenting claims will permit many claims to proceed, which formerly would have been legally barred. Fit and capable parents will now be forced to defend against such third parties' claims. To be sure, many of these claims will be factually weaker than Kulstad's claim, and will no doubt fail. Nonetheless, parents will be forced to defend against them. The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the burden of litigating a domestic relations proceeding can itself be so disruptive of the parent-child relationship that the constitutional right of a custodial parent to make certain basic determinations for the child's welfare becomes implicated. Troxel, 530 U.S. at 75, 120 S.Ct. at 2065 (citation and quotations omitted). [3] ¶ 132 Lest this be deemed as merely a sky is falling concern, it need only be noted that other cases raising these very issues are already pending before this Court. In In re Parenting of J.D.B., DA 08-0505, a mother, whose fitness is uncontested, is defending against a third party parenting claim to her children by her mother-in-law, who has cared for the children. Citing the precedent relied upon by this dissent, the mother argues in her briefing that [w]here third parties seek custody, it has long been the law of Montana that the right of the natural parent prevails until a showing of a forfeiture of this right.... This forfeiture can only result where the parent's conduct does not meet the minimum standards of the child abuse, neglect and dependency statutes. This is the argument made by this dissent and that any lawyer studying our precedent would make. See also In re Parenting of L.F.A., DA 08-0456 (A natural mother argues that a third party may not simply acquire parental interests in the children absent significant deference to [a mother's] constitutional rights.). ¶ 133 There will be many more such cases. A legacy of this decision is the legion of parents who will be forced to litigate in order to protect the rights that the Constitution once guaranteed to them. A single parent must now consider whether a new romantic relationship will jeopardize the right to parent her or his children by way of a future third party parenting claim. Other like situations abound. As argued by the Appellant in L.F.A.: Many parents will at times leave their children in the care of a non-parental partner when they are unable to watch the child. More well-off families might have a nanny who cares for a child or set of children from their birth. Not infrequently children will be closer to these caregivers than even their own parents. Is every boyfriend, girlfriend, relative, grandparent or professional caregiver to be entitled to parenting rights just because they have cared for the child? ¶ 134 There will be further consequences as well. This case may well be reported as a legal victory for the rights of same-sex couples. Because both sides have stated that the parties' gender is not a determinative issue in this case, neither the Court nor this dissent has discussed it. Regardless, the implications of the decision go far beyond the gender of the particular parties at issue here. There are parameters in neither the statute nor this decision that limit the kind or number of parties and relationships that will be now subject to parenting claims. Before this decision, protection of parental constitutional rights, which required termination of a parent's rights before granting a parental interest to a third party, necessarily, by biology and the adoption laws, limited the number of parents a child could have. However, those inherent limits have now been removed by the Court. [4] Consequently, what if three or four adult partners develop a parent-child relationship with a child? Multiple-party clusters raising children, or polyamorous families, are the next wave in societal relationship experimentation. See Jessica Bennett, Only You. And You. And You.: PolyamoryRelationships with Multiple, Mutually Consenting PartnersHas a Coming-out Party, Newsweek (July 29, 2009) (available online at http://www. newsweek.com/id/209164/page/1); Susan D. James, Polyamory: When One Spouse Isn't Enough, ABC News (June 18, 2009) (available online at h ttp://abcnews.go.com/Health/US/Story?id=7870884 & page=1). While it may be at least a little while before a trial court concludes that such claims are in a child's best interest, claims to multiple parenting interests arising out of such communal living arrangements are now legally possible, making them inevitable. ¶ 135 The abandonment of constitutional principle for the expediency of today's decision will have long, far-reaching and negative impacts. I dissent and would reverse the District Court.