New grandparent visitation bill passes in Alabama Legislature

[queenlily]

The Alabama Legislature on Wednesday passed a new bill that would give some grandparents the right to see their grandchildren, about five years after a similar law was deemed unconstitutional.This year's legislation, sponsored by Rep. Mike Jones, R-Andalusia, repeals the Alabama Grandparents Visitation Act, which was enacted in 2010

Comments

[meadowphoenix]

if one of both of the parents' parental rights were terminated

I could actually understand petitioning in this situation, since usually if the parent was no good for the child then that parent's relatives are more likely to have stepped in

but

f the children's parents have filed for divorce; or if the children were born out of wedlock
Not sure what the difference these situations make. Seems like morality policing.

[queenlily]

I don't know much, but it seems like if the parents' parental rights were terminated, meaning the child needed to be adopted or enter foster care, then there would already be a system set up giving family first dibs on the child without this law.

That is definitely morality policing.

[meadowphoenix]

Well there's likely no system set up. Like incredibly unlikely. But generally judges feel that family members having custody is in the best interest of the child, which is the main legal standard.

But this gets complicated when only one parent's rights get terminated and that parent's family was taking care of the kid. The other parent can sue for custody it becomes very complicated. Also, sometimes you have situations where the parent is not in a mentally or physically healthy situation and neither are the family members around them, but family members around them will get temporary custody at first and after that it's hard for anyone else to get custody then without a lot of evidence. If my grandparents had been able to sue for custody after my little cousin's mom died, as a right, then we might have been able to avoid 6 years of abuse and neglect to my cousin.

So I could definitely see how a law might inarticulately try to cover those situations, although the other ones are bullshit.

[queenlily]

Ugh. I'm sorry for your cousin. I hope he/she is doing okay now.

Yeah, some system should be in place to prevent that while retaining a parent's right to parent. More funding to CPS?

[omimouse]

More funding to CPS?Uhmmm, no. Especially not in the South. I'm a poly parent, and trust me, we have horror stories. And yeah, chances are you can eventually appeal your way up the court system until you get a judge that says, 'this is unconstitutional', but chances are you don't have the money for that, and the ACLU cannot even begin to take every case like this

[fenchurchly]

I might be misreading but I don't think they are singling out those situations, but rather just making it clear that it includes them.

I completely agree with you about the termination of parental rights though, especially if it's only one of the parents.

[meadowphoenix]

No, you can look at the law; those are the exact situations. Honestly, the law isn't that bad, I just specifically disagree that grandparents should be able to intervene in any custody or domestic proceeding, but the termination of parental rights is a good reason, and the law requires proof that the grandparents have lived with or provided support for the kid for 6 months or had a relationship for 12 months, and there is a rebuttable presumption that a parent's rule of no contact was reasonable.

I can understand how people feel like this is an attempt to chip away at parental rights however.