Court Opinion

ID: 9819445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:25:24.124955+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:30.599419
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COOK, specially concurring: I concur, but I am troubled by an issue not addressed by the parties. The majority states: “Moreover, when determining an appropriate permanency goal, the trial court is obligated to consider the children’s best interest. 705 ILCS 405/2 — 28(2) (West Supp. 1999). At the time of the August 2000 hearing, L.H. and S.E. had been in substitute care for 20 months with a family that had expressed an interest in adopting them.” 319 Ill. App. 3d at 944. It has been the law that, when the State seeks to terminate parental rights, the court must determine the parent’s unfitness before it may proceed to a consideration of the child’s best interests. In re Adoption of Syck, 138 Ill. 2d 255, 276, 562 N.E.2d 174, 183 (1990). It is improper to take a child from fit parents because other individuals might do a better job raising the child. It is not until after a parent has been found to be unfit that the court may consider evidence of the child’s best interests. In re M.S., 302 Ill. App. 3d 998, 1003, 706 N.E.2d 524, 528 (1999). For that reason, it is necessary in termination cases to conduct a separate best interests hearing after the parent has been found to be unfit, in which evidence will be admitted which was not admissible at the fitness hearing. In re J.T.C., 273 Ill. App. 3d 193, 200, 652 N.E.2d 421, 426 (1995); In re A.P., 277 Ill. App. 3d 592, 600, 660 N.E.2d 1006, 1012 (1996). Does section 2 — 28(2) of the Act purport to change these basic rules? Can a decision to terminate parental rights be made before it is determined that the parents are unfit? Is it no longer necessary to have a best interests hearing separate from the unfitness hearing? As far as I can tell, the statutes dealing with unfitness hearings in termination cases have not been changed. Section 4 — 27(2) of the Act (705 ILCS 405/4 — 27(2) (West 1998)) still requires a “finding, based upon clear and convincing evidence, that a non-consenting parent is an unfit person” before parental rights may be terminated. In any event, it must be remembered that the legislature does not have complete freedom to act in this area; parental rights are a fundamental liberty interest protected by the fourteenth amendment (U.S. Const., amend. XIV). Lulay v. Lulay, 193 Ill. 2d 455, 472, 739 N.E.2d 521, 530 (2000), quoting Santosky v. Kramer, 455 US. 745, 753, 71 L. Ed. 2d 599, 606, 102 S. Ct. 1388, 1394 (1982).