The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a doctrine that lets authorities remove children from their parents’ custody if just one parent is deemed unfit.
The court’s 5-2 decision on Monday found that the more than 70-year-old “one-parent doctrine” infringes on the due process rights of parents, overturning lower courts’ rulings. The state must balance its “legitimate” and “crucial” interest in protecting children “with the fundamental rights of parents,” the justices said.
The ruling stemmed from a case involving Lance Laird, a one-time Jackson County sheriff candidate.
Laird contested a court’s decision to remove two sons from his home after he tested positive for cocaine. The court also denied his requests for a trial to determine whether he was fit to parent. The boys’ mother, Tammy Sanders, admitted taking drugs with Laird and spent the night at his home despite a court order that prohibited her from having unsupervised contact with children.
One boy previously had been removed from the custody of his mother, Tammy Sanders, in 2011, days after the baby tested positive for cocaine at birth. He was placed with Laird, whose other son was living with him. Laird is currently in prison for violating federal drug-trafficking laws.
The high court also rejected Monday the Department of Human Services’ argument that Laird’s case should be dismissed because of his imprisonment. Justices said incarcerated parents can exercise their constitutional right to direct the care of their children.
Department of Human Services spokesman Bob Wheaton said officials are reviewing the decision.
The two dissenting justices, Judge Stephen Markman and Judge David Viviano, disagreed that both parents are constitutionally entitled to a jury trial on their fitness. Likewise, they wrote, Laird was found to be unfit after several such hearings.
They added that children “in the greatest need of expedited public protection” will receive it “considerably less quickly because both parents are for the first time constitutionally entitled to jury trials.”
Justices in the majority wrote that “in some cases this process may impose a greater burden on the state.” However, they continued, “constitutional rights do not always come cheap.”
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