Court Opinion

ID: 9627917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:58:49.133703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:52.442627
License: Public Domain

URBIGKIT, Justice,
concurring.
In concurring with this thoughtfully considered and exhaustively detailed opinion, my concern must be expressed that it is not the parental right which should be given primary concern, whether constitutional or otherwise, when weighed against the best interest of the children as statutorily directed and constitutionally protected. In this case, the detail of invidious and pervasive failure in parenting should not become the minimum requisite in future cases for societal protection for children in contested parental-rights termination.
This Supreme Court is the final repository of constitutional responsibility and should speak to the rights of the children in a balancing test of parental claim against the children’s welfare in judicial strict scrutiny. Asserted constitutional rights in parental relationships can be as directly disaffected by adverse social conduct as would effectively result from proscribed behavior under criminal laws. I remain indelibly committed to the best-interest criterion. See my dissent in Matter of Adoption of BGD, Wyo., 719 P.2d 1373 (1986), and Note, Contested Consent to Adoption: No Longer a Decision in the Child’s Best Interest, XXII Land and Water L.Rev. 203 (1987).