Court Opinion

ID: 9790423
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:52:43.755718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:29.447860
License: Public Domain

ZIMMERMAN, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in the Chief Justice’s opinion to the extent that it holds that the actions of L.D.S. Social Services constitute state action under the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. U.S. Const, amend. XIV.
With respect to the federal equal protection analysis, I would hold that under the circumstances of this case — where the father’s identity was known to all concerned, he had informally acknowledged his paternity, he was readily available, he had indicated a desire to participate in the raising of the child, but he had failed to file a formal acknowledgment of paternity within four days of his child’s birth — section 78-30-4(3) operates to deny the father equal protection of the laws. This is so because in its operation, the statute cuts off entirely any rights the father may have to develop a relationship with his child but does not cut off the rights of a similarly situated mother. No matter how uninterested a mother may be in her child, even if she abandons her child immediately upon birth, she need file no formal papers to perfect her parental rights. And her rights in the child cannot be terminated except through a formal judicial proceeding. See Utah Code Ann. § 78-3a-48 (1987).
In our decisions in Ellis v. Social Services Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 615 P.2d 1250 (Utah 1980), and Wells v. Children’s Aid Society, 681 P.2d 199 (Utah 1984), we held that the equal protection clause was not offended by this statute. In neither of those cases, however, did we subject the statute to any reasoned discussion of the equal protection standard to be applied. In Ellis, we proceeded without any discussion of the standard at all. In Wells, the entire discussion of the equal protection standard was one sentence stating that the test implicitly applied in Ellis was the weak rationality standard of scrutiny used to analyze challenges to garden-variety economic and police power measures that do not affect any fundamental rights. Wells v. Children’s Aid Soc’y, 681 P.2d at 204. Virtually any statutory classification can be sustained under such a standard. See, e.g., Blue Cross and Blue Shield v. State, 779 P.2d 634, 637, 641 (Utah 1989); Condemarin v. University Hosp., 775 P.2d 348, 357, 359 (Utah 1989); Mountain Fuel Supply Co. v. Salt Lake City Corp., 752 P.2d 884, 889 (Utah 1988).
That permissive analysis is not suitable for weighing the attack on section 78-30-4(3). That provision operates to deprive fathers of their inchoate right to develop a relationship with their illegitimate children. I would find such a right to be of a sufficiently fundamental nature that the level of scrutiny required is strict. Cf. Lehr v. Robertson, 463 U.S. 248, 103 S.Ct. 2985, 77 L.Ed.2d 614 (1983) (established relationship with child important criterion in evaluating rights of parent). The strict scrutiny test requires a close analysis of the means used by the state to achieve even a legitimate legislative end. Casenote, 1967 Utah L.Rev. 566, 569-72; see, e.g., Carey v. Brown, 447 U.S. 455, 461-62, 100 S.Ct. 2286, 2290-91, 65 L.Ed.2d 263 (1980) (strict scrutiny applied where speech rights restricted).
The statute fails the strict scrutiny test. It does not use a means that is carefully tailored to accomplish a legitimate legislative end without unduly infringing on the father’s fundamental interest at issue. The state may have a legitimate interest in *647easing the way for the adoption of illegitimate children and in speedily resolving questions about the identity of the fathers, but that objective does not require or justify the undiscriminating, across-the-board, gender-based distinction upon which the statute relies. Cf Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, 458 U.S. 718, 725-26, 102 S.Ct. 3331, 3336-37, 73 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1982). It is a draconian measure that stereotypes fathers of illegitimate children and treats them all alike, while treating all mothers quite differently. This statutory provision appears designed entirely for the convenience of child placement agencies, an impression that has been strengthened by the arguments of all parties before this court. For these reasons, I would hold that the statute denies equal protection of the laws to Swayne.
Because I would reverse on the basis of a federal equal protection analysis, I see no reason to address the federal due process question at length. I do note that I have serious constitutional reservations about the complete lack of a notice requirement under section 78-30-4(3), especially when the father is known and available. However, I also recognize that this court has found that no such notice is required constitutionally. See Wells v. Children’s Aid Soc’y, 681 P.2d at 207; Zanolli, The Unwed Father and Adoption in Utah: A Proposal for Statutory Reform, 1989 Utah L.Rev. 115, 137 (proposing a statutory notice requirement).
There are several state constitutional issues raised by petitioner. The majority, in a single sentence, purports to dispose of those questions, but without any real analysis. In my view, the summary treatment given those issues by the majority has not settled them. Moreover, I think those claims are not facially meritless. For that reason, I venture a few comments on the state constitutional claims in the hope that future briefing on this point will be better framed.
The majority seems to have little trouble rejecting petitioner’s claim that he has a fundamental right at stake under the federal constitution. I think the question of the fundamentality of the interests at issue will be more troublesome for the majority when it is addressed fully under the Utah Constitution.
Under both Utah’s uniform operation of the laws provision, article I, section 24, and Utah’s due process provision, article I, section 7, the strictness of the scrutiny to be given the relationship between the means used and any legitimate legislative ends to be attained would be determined, as it is under the federal constitution, by reference to the degree of sanctity accorded the rights involved. See Condemarin v. University Hosp., 775 P.2d at 367-68 (Zimmerman, J., concurring in part); Blue Cross and Blue Shield v. State, 779 P.2d at 637.1 However, there is no necessary correspondence between the value placed upon an interest or right of the people by the federal constitution and the value accorded it by the state constitution. For example, the Utah Constitution recognizes in the open courts provision of article I, section 11 the right of the people to obtain redress for certain civil wrongs, but there is no parallel recognition of these rights or interests in the federal constitution. As a result, we have provided a much higher level of protection for these interests under the state constitution. See Berry v. Beech Aircraft Corp., 717 P.2d 670 (Utah 1985). So too, the Utah Constitution specifically provides that men and women have a right to be treated equally. Article IV, section 1 provides, “Both male and female citizens of this State shall enjoy equally all civil, political and religious rights and privileges.” Utah Const, art. IV, § 1. There is no such provision in the federal constitution, and the United States Supreme Court has been *648very reluctant to recognize any such requirement of equal treatment. Therefore, while we might not accord those interests much weight in making a federal constitutional analysis of a statute infringing upon them, we could not so easily avoid recognizing their importance under the Utah Constitution.
In my view, if we were to fully consider a challenge to section 78-30-4(3)’s infringement upon the interests protected by article IV, section 1 of the Utah Constitution, under either the uniform operation of the laws provision, article I, section 24, or the due process provision, article I, section 7, the statute could not pass muster, and the ultimate result would be the same as I would reach under the federal constitution.
DURHAM, Justice, having disqualified herself, does not participate herein; DAVIDSON, Court of Appeals Judge, sat.

. And under Utah constitutional analysis, if an interest or right of the people is given special sanctity by the constitution and that interest or right is infringed by a challenged statute, not only is a strict scrutiny standard applied, hut also the presumption of validity normally accorded legislative action is reversed and the burden is imposed on the proponents of the legislation to justify the infringement. See Condemarin, 775 P.2d at 353-65 (Durham, J.); id. at 368 (Zimmerman, J., concurring in part); id. at 372-74 (Stewart, J., separate opinion).