Right to Educate

Rights In Choosing Medical Treatment

Innocent Child/Family Photographs

The Law Generally

The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no State shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." We have long recognized that the Amendment's Due Process Clause, like its Fifth Amendment counterpart, "guarantees more than fair process." Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 719, 138 L. Ed. 2d 772,  117 S. Ct. 2258 (1997). The Clause also includes a substantive component that "provides heightened protection against government interference with certain fundamental rights and liberty interests." 521 U.S. at 720; see also Reno v. Flores, 507 U.S. 292, 301-302, 123 L. Ed. 2d 1, 113 S. Ct. 1439 (1993).

The liberty interest at issue in this case -- the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children -- is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court. Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 65 (U.S., 2000)

Our cases leave no doubt that parents have a fundamental liberty interest in caring for and guiding their children, and a corresponding privacy interest -- absent exceptional circumstances -- in doing so without the undue interference of strangers to them and to their child. Moreover, and critical in this case, our cases applying this principle have explained that with this constitutional liberty comes a presumption (albeit a rebuttable one) that "natural bonds of affection lead parents to act in the best interests of their children." Parham v. J. R., 442 U.S. 584, 602, 61 L. Ed. 2d 101, 99 S. Ct. 2493 (1979); Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 87 (U.S., 2000)

Medical Treatment

While courts will intervene to require treatment in cases of imminent harm to the child where parents object to treatment based on their religious beliefs, the courts should not substitute their views for those of fit parents who object to treatment after weighing the risks of the treatment to the prospective benefit.  One would expect there to be numerous cases dealing with such circumstances --- there are not.

View Bill of Complaint (pdf) - Doe v. Virginia Department of Social Services

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Innocent Child/Family Photographs

So many family's have the "cute" photograph of their child standing at the tube giving a full moon--parents need not fear over zealous child protective services simply because the child is nude.

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Contact:

Thomas H. Roberts, Esq.
Thomas H. Roberts & Associates, P.C.
Virginia Civil Rights Attorneys
105 S. 1st Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
804) 783-2000
804) 783-2105