Jennifer, guest blogging at Unqualified Offerings, posts about the custody battle over the little girls who comprise the white supremacist singing group Prussian Blue: http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2006/06/05/5169
I don’t know much about these girls, but apparently they are the Olson Twins of the neo-Nazi movement. Their mother’s political views and immersion of the girls in the movement will doubtless be raised as an issue in the custody case. Jennifer asks what a libertarian position on this would be, and the commentariat’s consensus is that using a parent’s nonconformity with mainstream opinions and lifestyles against her rubs them the wrong way.
The problem, as I see it through the lens of many years as a “family” lawyer, is that custody and visitation matters are decided on the basis of an amorphous standard: “the best interests of the child”. The parents in the case can make just about any argument and use just about any set of facts to make their cases for custody. In the end, the judge will decide on the basis of his or her gut reaction to all the information and mudslinging. The judge’s personal values, preconceptions and prejudices will play a huge factor as he or she determines what the child’s “best interests” might be. A parent’s political or religious views might very well factor into the decision, especially if they are seen to be repugnant.
I have heard of cases where Wiccans were deprived of custody because of their unusual religion, and I had to work hard as a prosecutor to dissuade the Florida child welfare thugs from snatching Wiccans’ children solely on the basis of their religion. If my client’s ex was a Nazi, you better believe that this fact would make it into the record and that the fitness of Nazi’s as parents would be called into question.
My objections to the situation as a libertarian is not so much that judges might use someone’s nonconformist politics or religion against them in a custody case; rather, I don’t think judges should decide these matters at all. In the first case, it is an imposition on the rest of us to maintain a family court system to resolve such issues which ought to be resolved by agreements between parents. Secondly, it is disturbing to me that the state assumes to have any legitimate interest and authority whatsoever in parenting and custody arrangements.
Since most folks will not be bothered to make contracts about custody and visitation in advance (assuming as most do that all will be well with the family forever), one solution may be to assume a default contract with uniform terms from which parents can deviate by mutual agreement but which judges may not alter except in the most egregious cases of danger to the child. This would spare us all the expense of maintaining the dispute resolution apparatus, the state would be less involved in private familial relations and arrangements, and folks would have an incentive to resolve conflicts amicably, something from which children would benefit greatly.
The default arrangement might well be joint custody, share and share alike, with joint financial responsibility. The details of holiday visitation, education, and what have you would also be provided for in the legislation so that no petty disputes might emerge.
An even simpler solution would be to provide that, absent an agreement in writing to the contrary or a finding by clear and convincing evidence of unfitness, custody belongs to the mother in all cases. Moreover, visitation would be at the discretion of the mother. Fathers would have no support obligation imposed by courts except in accordance with the agreement between the parents. This would get the rest of us out the dispute resolution game and would get the state out of families.
Whatever happens in their custody case, I predict that at least one of the girls in Prussian Blue will date a black man and have a mixed race baby out of wedlock.
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2 comments:
"I have heard of cases where Wiccans were deprived of custody because of their unusual religion, and I had to work hard as a prosecutor to dissuade the Florida child welfare thugs from snatching Wiccans’ children solely on the basis of their religion."
Oh, bless you for this. Speaking as a Pagan myself, I just want to say I greatly appreciate anything you've done to fight this. Most people who blithely name America a land of religious tolerance do not realise this sort of this goes on is some parts of these United States.
The use of the state's power to take away children to punish the unpopular is not at all uncommon. As a sex worker, I know one colleague- a truly beautiful spirited woman, who was punished for her sex worker activism by having the city government intervene in her custody case and take away her daughter in favor of an abusive and neglectful ex-boyfriend, solely on the grounds of her occupation. This is particularly horrific as the need to support a child as a single mother is the #1 reason women et into sex work. I knew of one successful escort who had her mother names legal gaurdian of her children to forestall potential state action or reprisals.
And of course, at the same time CPS agencies often ignore the most horrid cases of abuse if they occur in the context of respectable middle class homes. Unfortunately I know something about that.
I'll disagree with your prediction of Prussian Blue dating a Negro.
Some poeple believe that now that they are entering their teens, that they will become rebellious and go against their parent's wishes.
But what these people are forgetting is that they already ARE rebellious, rebelling against the horrors of forced integration and egalitarian propaganda that is forcibly shoved down the throats of our youth by the Jewish supremacists who control the media and educational systems among other things.
The white youth of today are taught that they are the scum of the earth, who owe Negroes a living because of slavery, owe Jews a living because of the so-called Holocaust, owe Mexicans a living just because they want to grace the country with their presence, etc.
Prussian Blue are rebelling against all of that.
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