Court Opinion

ID: 9624919
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:21:29.720578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:56.568863
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, District Judge
(concurring) :
I agree with the Court that Conn. Gen.Stat. § 52-440b is not unconstitutional on its face, but I believe there is an additional constitutional question that will have to be considered when the statute is applied to specific individuals. This concerns the extent of protection afforded by the constitutional right of privacy.
The Court’s opinion considers and rejects primarily the Fifth Amendment and testimonial privileges as possible barriers to a mother’s enforced disclosure of the identity of an illegitimate child’s father. I agree with those conclusions and with the Court’s further observation that the statute on its face does not invade any constitutionally protected zone of privacy. The statute’s facial validity in this regard is properly upheld in the precise sense that not every application of the statute would achieve an unconstitutional result. But without anticipating all of the situations that will arise in the implementation of this statute, I think it is important to point out that a constitutionally protected right of privacy will be implicated and may well prevail against the statute’s enforcement in some situations.
There can be no question that liberty, within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, includes privacy with respect to some aspects of family life and sexual intimacy. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 153, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967); Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965). The Chief Justice has only recently observed that the “Constitution protects . . . special privacy rights such as those of marriage, procreation, motherhood, child rearing, and education.” United States v. Orito, 413 U.S. 139, 142, 93 S.Ct. 2674, 2677, 37 L.Ed.2d 513 (1973). In its application, this statute will involve privacy rights *85concerning both procreation and child rearing. The latter is evident. It is certainly an important aspect of child rearing for a mother to decide whether to secure legally some actual or potential financial benefit for her child at the expense of fracturing an amicable father-child relationship or even of harming the child by inflicting upon it distressing knowledge such as incestuous parentage. Decisions on such matters would plainly seem to enjoy no less constitutional protection than the decision whether to educate the child at a public or private school. Cf. Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, 69 L.Ed. 1070 (1925). The relationship between non-disclosure of the father’s name and privacy concerning procreation requires brief elaboration.
Unlike Roe, where the plaintiff wanted to have an abortion, and Griswold, where the plaintiff wanted to use a contraceptive, these plaintiffs do not claim a right to do something but to maintain secrecy concerning what they have done. More precisely, each plaintiff asserts the right to maintain secrecy concerning the identity of the man with whom she was intimate.1 In the First Amendment context, the Supreme Court has recognized that some aspects of constitutionally protected conduct may be shielded from state-compelled disclosure concerning such conduct. Thus the right of N.A.A. C.P. members to join together to advance their purposes carried with it a right to maintain secrecy concerning the identity of the members as against Alabama’s interest in enforcing its corporate regulations. N.A.A.C.P. v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958). See also Bates v. Little Rock, 361 U.S. 516, 80 S.Ct. 412, 4 L.Ed.2d 480 (1960). Since privacy is the central concept underlying constitutionally protected rights pertaining to sexual matters, Griswold v. Connecticut, supra, it seems obvious that such rights carry with them concomitant rights to maintain secrecy concerning sexual intimacies. It is true, as the Court observes, that the inquiry of the challenged statute focuses on the father’s identity, but the mother cannot respond to the inquiry without disclosing a very private fact — the name of the , person with whom she had sexual relations.
Whether related to privacy concerning child rearing or procreation, recognition of some constitutional protection surrounding the identity of one’s sexual partner does not end, but only begins the pertinent inquiry, namely — whether the state has shown sufficient justification to override the protected interest. Unlike the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination, the privacy protection of the Fourteenth Amendment is subject to the legitimate and substantial concerns of the state. See N.A.A.C.P. v. Alabama, supra. The Court identifies as the primary purpose of § 52-440b the enforcement of a father’s obligation to support his child.2 *86In some circumstances achieving that purpose may well be sufficient to justify impairment of the mother’s right to privacy. A strong case would be presented if the father’s identity is ascertainable and the three-year statute of limitations for paternity actions, § 52-435a, has not run. On the other hand, there may well be situations where the prospect of enforcing the father’s support obligation is so insubstantial that the statutory purpose cannot constitutionally override the mother’s privacy right. If, for example, the statute of limitations for paternity actions has run, it is difficult to see what legitimate interest is served by enforced disclosure. There may also be situations where the mother has disclosed the father’s identity but is reluctant to strain family relationships by bringing a paternity action. Since the welfare commissioner has authority to prosecute the paternity suit, the state’s interest in compelling the mother to sue might well be insufficient to justify impairment of the constitutionally protected interest she has in making decisions to maintain the harmony of her family unit. See Haley v. Troy, 338 F.Supp. 794, 804 (D.Mass.1972).
We need not decide how the constitutional balance should be struck in the variety of factual situations that will come before the state circuit court judges charged with the responsibility for adjudicating contempt citations under this statute. The Court recognizes in footnote 14 of Chief Judge Blumenfeld’s opinion that the statute accords the state judges ample discretion to determine the appropriateness of contempt remedies in specific cases. I simply wish to make clear that in exercising their discretion the state judges will have to adjudicate the Fourteenth Amendment question of whether the state interest sought to be advanced outweighs the mother’s constitutionally protected interest in privacy in sexual and child rearing matters,3 and they may well be obligated to conclude that application of the statute in some circumstances would be unconstitutional.4

. The Court properly observes that, wholly apart from the state-compelled inquiry, the fact of the mother’s pregnancy has no doubt been disclosed to some extent. But simply because the fact of pregnancy and subsequent birth is known, either widely or narrowly, in the ease of mothers who not infrequently give birth to illegitimate children far removed from their communities, all rights to privacy concerning the identity of the paramour do not automatically disappear.

. In this connection, I agree with the Court that in considering plaintiffs’ equal protection claim, i. e., whether this legislative purpose is rationally advanced by the legislative classification, the statute should be viewed as creating a classification of mothers of illegitimate children who receive welfare. Though the statute purports to require disclosure of the father’s identity not only to the welfare commissioner in the case of welfare beneficiaries, but also to guardians and guardians ad litem, I disagree with the Court’s alternative contention that the statute thereby applies to all mothers of illegitimate children. Plainly the statute does not in terms specify that all mothers of illegitimate children must disclose the father’s identity. Instead it specifies three officials empowered to compel disclosure. The statute. would be comprehensive only if all illegitimate children whose mothers are not receiving welfare had guardians or guardians *86ad litem appointed for them. Guardians ad litem appear on the scene only with respect to certain kinds of litigation, and guardians are designated by the probate court principally in the event of a finding of the mother’s abandonment or neglect. Conn. Gen.Stat. § 45-43. Sec. 45-43 also provides for appointment of a guardian where the probate court finds that removal of the parent as guardian is “for the best interests of the child,” but the state has not called our attention to any instance where probate court has construed the statute as permitting the mother’s failure to bring a paternity action to be sufficient justification for removing her as guardian.

. In some instances privacy rights of the child might be implicated that are not identical with the mother’s, in which case a guardian ad litem might be needed to be sure the constitutional issue is properly developed for decision.

. Procedural problems may well be encountered in developing a record to determine whether in a particular case the substantiality of the state’s interest in enforcing the father’s obligation outweighs the mother’s privacy interest. In some cases it may be difficult to assess the state interest unless the identity of the father is known. Perhaps m camera proceedings can be employed in such instances. Sometimes it may be possible to persuade the trier of fact that the paternity suit statute of limitations has run without any disclosure of the father’s name, as where third party testimony demonstrates that the father (or any male) has contributed no support for more than three years.