U.S. Supreme Court Cases Regarding Child Welfare

Question 1

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield

Answer 1

Federal definition of domicile in an ICWA case requires that the child of persons domiciled on an Indian reservation is also domiciled on the reservation, despite having been born off the reservation and having been placed for adoption without ever being on the reservation. Parents can’t circumvent ICWA

Question 2

Meyer, Pierce, and Prince

Meyer v. Nebraska, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Prince v. Massachusetts

Answer 2

Parents have a fundamental liberty interest in directing the upbringing of their children

Question 3

Wisconsin v. Yoder

Answer 3

Compulsory education laws which required Amish children to go to school past the 8th grade violated parents’ 1st Amendment rights of freedom of religion

Question 4

Troxel v. Granville

Answer 4

There is a presumption that fit parents can make decisions that are in the best interests of their child

Question 5

In re Gault

Answer 5

Fourteenth Amendment due process rights apply to delinquency case. Neither the 14th Amendement nor the Bill of Rights is exclusively for adults

Question 6

Tinker v. Des Moines Ind. Comm. School District

Answer 6

Students have 1st Amendment Rights

Question 7

Bellotti v. Baird

Answer 7

Pregnant girls cannot be required to obtain parental consent for an abortion without affording a judicial bypass hearing

Question 8

Parham v. J.R.

Answer 8

Parents to not have absolute discretion to commit their child to a mental institution. The child has a liberty interest in not being erroneously labeled mentally ill. There must be an initial and periodic review by a neutral fact-finder, but it need not be a judicial hearing. The inquiry must probe the child’s background using all available resources. Parents have a high duty to recognize symptoms of illness and seek and follow medical advice

Question 9

Stanley v. Illinois

Answer 9

Striking down an irrefutable presumption of unfitness, the Court held that fathers of children born out of wedlock have a due process and equal protection right to a hearing prior to removal of their children from their custody

Question 10

Quilloin v. Walcott

Answer 10

Limited the constitutional rights of fathers of children born out wedlock to those who had evidenced a substantial interest in their children’s welfare. An uninvolved father’s consent to the stepparent adoption of his child is not necessary if the adoption would be in the child’s best interests.

Question 11

Caban v. Mohammed

Answer 11

Struck down as violative of equal protection a statute requiring consent to adoption of the mother, but not the father, of a child born out of wedlock

Question 12

Lehr v. Robertson

Answer 12

Upheld constitutionality of a statute treating fathers and mothers of children born out of wedlock differently concerning the necessity for consent to adoption when it provides a putative fathers registry, by which a father could obtain rights equivalent to those of the mother

Question 13

Michael H. v. Gerald D.

Answer 13

Upheld constitutionality of conclusive presumption against a putative father who sought to establish paternity in the face of the desire of the mother and her husband, the presumed father, to raise the child as their own

Question 14

The Law after Stanley, Quilloin, Caban, Lehr, and Michael H.

Answer 14

An unwed father who demonstrates a full commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood is entitled to due process before his parental rights may be terminated. However, the mere fact of biological parentage is not entitled to constitutional protection, and a man may be denied standing to establish paternity for a child born to a married mother

Question 15

Lassiter v. Department of Social Services

Answer 15

Indigent parents are not constitutionally entitled to appointed counsel in all termination cases

Question 16

Santosky v. Kramer

Answer 16

Termination grounds must be proven by clear and convincing evidence

Question 17

M.L.B. v. S.L.J.

Answer 17

Indigent parent appealing a TPR case is entitled to a court record on appeal at public expense as a matter of due process

Question 18

Smith v. O.F.F.E.R.

Answer 18

There is a significant constitutional difference between the foster family relationships and natural family relationships, even when the child being returned to the natural family has been with the foster family for a long time. NY’s procedures were not constitutionally defective

Question 19

DeShaney and Youngberg

DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Serv.s, Youngberg v. Romeo

Answer 19

The state has not duty to protect a child not in state custody from conduct by private parties. However, when a person is institutionalized and dependent on the state, the state must provide safe conniptions.

Question 20

Suter v. Artist M.

Answer 20

the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act’s requirement that the state make “reasonable efforts” did not create a privately enforceable cause of action

Question 21

Pennsylvania v. Ritchie

Answer 21

A criminal child abuse defendant is entitled to court review of victim’s social service file to determine whether it has material information that should be disclosed

Question 22

Washington State Department of Social and Health Services v. Guardianship Estate of Keffeler

Answer 22

The State was entitled to reimburse itself for the costs of foster care through a self-reimbursing representative payee for foster children’s Social security benefits

Question 23

Baltimore City Dept of Social Services v. Bouknight

Answer 23

A custodial parent may not invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to resist an order of the juvenile court to produce the child

Question 24

Ferguson v. City of Charleston

Answer 24

The public hospital’s performance of a drug screening test to obtain evidence of a pregnant woman’s criminal conduct for law enforcement purposes is an unreasonable search if the patient did not consent to the procedure; therefore, it violated the Fourth Amendment