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Abstract:
Whether and how to accommodate students' personal religious symbols worn in public schools are part of a mounting global debate. The competing claims of the body politic and the religious or cultural identity of minority groups came to a head in what the French called the "affair of the veil." This chapter examines the problem of the veil from a cross-cultural perspective, comparing the United States to several other western democracies. The comparison involves both legal and cultural premises. In each instance, the analysis must consider the fundamental values of the body politic, the laws and covenants that govern decision-making, and the society's basic premises about the relation between religion and the state. The inquiry is further complicated by broader claims of the sub-groups with which parents and children identify.

Part one of this chapter discusses the cultural significance of dress, and briefly summarizes the apparel associated with certain religions and its significance. Part two considers the legal regimes and models that govern student religious garb in the United States, France, Great Britain and Canada. Part three examines the extent to which those four models succeed in balancing all of the potential individual rights claims that arise when students wear symbols to school and in balancing those claims with those of minority groups and the broader collectivity.

children, religious expression, religious symbols, public schools, human rights

Abstract:
This paper explores issues raised by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) and contends that the Act may have unwittingly harmed some children and mothers by creating a categorical imperative that a child's health and safety must be a paramount consideration in child welfare decisions. After discussing the reforms made by the Act, this paper analyzes hard cases, in particular cases involving substance abusing mothers and battered mothers, and concludes that in some instances children's interests in these cases might be better served by a flexible standard where the child asserts a claim to a continued relationship with a biological parent.

families

Abstract:
This article considers the independent liberty interests of children in foster care and their mothers in parental termination proceedings. Federal reforms enacted in 1997 impose a mandatory deadline for the state to terminate parental rights. That policy erroneously presumes that the passage of time suffices to establish parental fault and satisfies a parent's due process rights to her child. The policy also fails to protect the minority of children in foster care who assert an interest in preserving a safe relationship with mothers who are unlikely to regain custody within the state's time frame - including many substance abusers, incarcerated parents and victims of domestic violence.

ASFA, abuse, neglect, termination of parental rights, prison, substance abuse, domestic violence, Nicholson

Abstract:
Despite doctrinal requirements that the state establish a compelling interest to justify content-based regulations on speech, Professor Ross argues that courts have routinely taken the government's interest at face value when it argues that it inhibits speech to protect children. The Article examines the Supreme Court's test which requires the state to establish a compelling interest by articulating the precise harm it wishes to address, demonstrating a nexus between that identified harm and the regulated speech, and showing that restriction of the speech will alleviate the harm. The author seeks to reframe the discussion surrounding controversial speech and children by calling on courts to scrutinize the interest asserted by the government.

This Article examines the two compelling interests on which the government relies in justifying its efforts to shield children from controversial speech: an interest in reinforcing parental authority and an independent state interest in protecting children from material the government deems unsuitable. The author finds both arguments fatally flawed. Drawing on the literature of family law, Professor Ross offers a heuristic device for measuring the potential of regulations on speech to empower parents. She divides families into three categories: the "idealized normative family," the "imperfect normative family," and the "nonconformist family," which itself manifests a wide range of values. She then demonstrates that no regulatory scheme can accommodate the range of constitutionally protected parental preferences in all three types of families. The state's purported independent interest in shielding children from speech fares no better. In case after case, the government has failed to articulate any specific harm to children that would support such an independent interest, much less the required nexus between the speech and the harm.

Even if proponents of particular regulations on speech were to succeed in meeting their burden of proof to demonstrate a compelling interest, a close question would still be presented, as the handful of lower court opinions that have expressly considered the government's asserted interest make clear. Then, and only then, would courts properly analyze whether the specific regulation survives balancing of competing constitutional interests and is narrowly tailored. Because the private market offers numerous mechanisms to respond to a range of parental preferences, it is unclear that government regulation would be necessary to alleviate demonstrable harms, much less the least restrictive alternative, in all but the narrowest of cases.

Family Law, Family Protection and Welfare, Child Abuse, Rights of Children, Endangerment, Freedom of Speech, Obscenity

Abstract:
It may seem counterintuitive, but children in foster care are more likely to achieve permanency if we take the legal rights of their parents seriously. When all state actors, from social workers to judges, consider parental rights before removing children from their families or terminating parental rights, subsequent adoptions are more likely to be insulated from ongoing litigation, or in the worst instance, revocation. I am a strong proponent of children’s rights. In the context of the child welfare system, however, respect for the rights of parents can protect children from unnecessary and frightening disruptions. The doctrine of parens patriae, which justifies state intervention into families to protect children from serious harm, allows the state to pierce the veil of family integrity. When there is a concrete basis for such intervention, the state should consider the child’s need for continuity and stability as it develops case plans. Children, like parents, have a stake in the integrity of their families, whether biological or adoptive. Moreover, risks to all children in the system would be diminished if we could move closer to realizing best practices: consistently applying legal standards, following best therapeutic practices, delivering well-targeted services, and reserving removals for the most egregious cases. This Article examines the legal doctrines with which child welfare workers should be familiar when they intervene in family life, especially when they take drastic measures such as removing children from their parents or filing a petition for termination of parental rights. I then argue that taking the legal rights of the parents seriously would have resulted in a more effective response to an incident that received a great deal of national attention in 2008 - the allegations of neglect and abuse of hundreds of children in a community of Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints in Texas. Part I of this Article discusses the role of the foster care system in providing children available for adoption and introduces the concept of wrongful terminations of parental rights that results in adoptions being overturned by courts. Part II summarizes the constitutional doctrine of parents’ rights, its application to decisions to remove children from their homes and to terminate parental rights, and the silence of social science literature about the importance of parental liberty interests in children as part of the legal framework that governs the child welfare system. Part III discusses what child welfare workers need to know, but often do not, about the applicable law. Part IV examines how Texas officials responded to reports of child abuse at the Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Texas, as well as the judicial response to the state’s actions. Part V proposes a plan of action for the state that would have better respected the rights of the parents and the community while offering more effective protection to the children who needed it.

Abstract:
'When you talk about the debate on Turkey’s E.U. membership,' a German of Turkish origin who serves in the Parliament of the European Union explains, 'it immediately becomes a talk about head-scarf issues and building mosques.' This is in part because Western Europe has long considered itself a 'Christian Club.' The treatment of second-generation Turks in Germany and other European countries offers a window into the obstacles that must be confronted and overcome before Turks gain full equality in Europe. Totaling about four million, persons of Turkish origin make up the largest immigrant group in Europe, and virtually all of them are Muslims. So when the European Union rendered Turkey 'eligible' for membership, a long process described elsewhere in this issue, Prime Minister Erdogan proclaimed that the invitation proved Europe was 'not a Christian Club' after all. But what does it mean to call an increasingly secular Europe a Christian Club? To a substantial degree, the culture that unifies Europe today is defined by the “other” who is not part of that culture. The Christian Club, then, may be seen as cultural rather than overtly religious, and Turks may represent the quintessential 'other.' This Article explores the status of Turks who reside in the European Union by drawing in part from the social science literature on the second generation of contemporary immigrants - that is, the children of migrant parents, raised in the receiving society - a field whose practitioners concede it is still 'in its infancy.' This Article focuses on Germany because it is home to more than half of Europe’s Turks, and on youth, because an important test of the permeability of social boundaries is whether the second and third generations of immigrants can cross them. Part I provides an overview of the demography and history of Germany’s Turkish population, and introduces the questions I will be examining. Part II turns to the educational system, focusing on the stratification of students into tracks that have a lifelong impact on career paths and socio-economic status, and the correlation between ethnicity and assignment to the lowest track. Part III examines religious identity within the public school system as played out through the differential treatment accorded to training in Islam during the school day when compared to classes offered to children who practice other major religions. Finally, Part IV explores some lessons one can draw from the experience of second-generation Turks in Germany, and what their apparent lack of mobility augers for the treatment of Turkey as an equal partner in Europe, assuming that it gains acceptance into the European Union. Finally, this Article concludes that despite recent progress, legal and cultural barriers continue to inhibit the assimilation of German Turks into mainstream German society.

Abstract:
This casebook captures the rapid evolution of doctrine, introduces students to emerging policy debates, and explores issues that arise in family law practice including the importance of collaborating with professionals from other disciplines. The book emphasizes that families take a variety of forms, including marital and nonmarital relationships, and that constitutional considerations play an increasingly important role in family law. Contemporary Family Law includes several chapters that do not appear in most other family law casebooks. For example, it devotes separate chapters to lawyering, private ordering, and alternative dispute resolution. And, in contrast to the usual approach, the book treats property distribution and alimony in separate chapters to emphasize each topic's distinctive theoretical and practical aspects. Moreover, because child custody arrangements lead to some of the most acrimonious legal disputes, this casebook devotes two separate chapters to custody: the first treats the initial custody decision, and the second explores disputes that arise over visitation, custody, and key childrearing decisions after the initial disposition. In addition, the book emphasizes the importance of legal practice issues by placing the lawyering chapter at the beginning of the book, and by using problems that enable students to apply doctrine.

family law

Abstract:
Although the vast majority of Americans believe that too much violence is displayed in the media, the strictures of the Speech Clause make it very difficult to regulate speech containing violent imagery. This book chapter reviews for non-lawyers the limits that Speech Clause places on the government's ability to regulate speech based on its content, and demonstrates that violent speech does not fit into any of the limited legal categories - such as obscenity - that comprise unprotected speech. The chapter then considers the government's burden to demonstrate that violent speech harms children before it can regulate such speech, and concludes that current social science evidence does not meet the constitutional standard. The article discusses the difficulties inherent in defining violent speech in a way that satisfies the demands of the First Amendment. It concludes that private efforts by parents and industry offer the best, and probably the only constitutional response to the social problem of media violence.