Family Law
Reforming the Troubled Teen Industry
November 30, 2022
By Alida Weidensee* Imagine yourself as a teenager. You wake up in the middle of the night to adult strangers in your bedroom. Maybe there are police officers too. These strangers force you to go with them, telling you that there is “a choice to do this the easy way or hard way.” You might…
Continue ReadingAdopters’ Remorse: The Unregulated Use of Social Media to Rehome Children
January 27, 2025
By: Zena Hamilton, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Adopters’ Remorse – The Unregulated Use of Social Media to Rehome Children (Hamilton) Facebook can be used to buy a used laptop or lamp on the marketplace; surprisingly, it can also be used to rehome a child. Facebook groups dedicated to rehoming unwanted adopted children…
Continue ReadingCan Kayden’s Law Erase the Legal Fiction of Parental Alienation?
April 16, 2024
By: Sydney Koehler Debunking “parental alienation” “Parental alienation syndrome” may sound like a medical diagnosis, but it is decidedly not—at least, not according to the scientific community.[1] Dr. Richard Gardner’s theory of “parental alienation” has been discredited by medical experts and human rights advocates as an empirically unfounded “pseudo-concept” that reifies negative stereotypes about victims…
Continue ReadingContingency Fee Bans For Divorce Proceedings: Ethical Considerations or Patriarchal Protections?
March 25, 2024
By: Rachel Emendorfer* Marriage. What starts in hopeful beginnings often ends in bitter legal battles. In the United States, over 600,000 divorces occur each year.[1] But the prevalence of divorce in this country should not be mistaken for the ease of obtaining one. Ending your marriage can not only take months to accomplish but may…
Continue Reading“Reasonable Efforts” Inequities in Minnesota Child Welfare Removals
May 12, 2023
By Luke Srodulski When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed House File 4065 into law on June 2, 2022, much of the media coverage surrounded provisions legalizing THC-infused edibles and beverages, and whether Republican state lawmakers had actually intended to pass them.[1] Far less notable to most observers were reforms to child welfare law.[2] These amendments…
Continue ReadingThe Clash Between LGBTQ Anti-Discrimination Law and Freedom of Speech in 303 Creative v. Elenis: Which Will Take the Cake?
April 2, 2023
By Elizabeth Wellhausen* In December 2022, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case that is basically a “redo” of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.[1] In Masterpiece, a baker refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because same-sex marriage conflicted with his religious views.[2] The…
Continue ReadingReason-Specific Abortion Bans Under Current Abortion Jurisprudence
March 13, 2023
View/Download PDF Version By Jocelyn Rimes† Introduction In 2021 alone, 108 restrictions on abortion were enacted in just nineteen states.[1] With the recent Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that eliminated the federal constitutional right to obtain an abortion, abortion access is in a perilous position for millions of individuals.[2] Currently, ten…
Continue ReadingThe Respect for Marriage Act: Limitations, Protections, and Future Implications
March 3, 2023
In this blog post, Staff Member Elise Skarda reviews the impact of the much-anticipated Respect for Marriage Act, and, due to the Act’s limits, proposes further actions to be taken to protect same-sex marriage.
Continue ReadingUpdated Minnesota Child Support Guidelines Starting January 1, 2023: What’s Changing and Who Will Be Impacted?
February 10, 2023
*By Sydnie Peterson Effective January 1, 2023, the Minnesota child support guidelines will undergo various targeted changes that aim to have a large impact on child support awards. Child support awards are court ordered and intended to adequately provide for children’s “care, housing, food, clothing, transportation, and additional support for medical costs” and child care.[1]…
Continue ReadingAll in the Family: How Polyamorous Families Can Use Businesses Models and Contracts to Secure Legal Benefits
February 9, 2023
JLI Staff Member Jacqueline R. Brant explores the legal challenges of polyamorous and plural families, including child custody, tax filing, government benefits, and housing rights, and the methods these families use to build a life outside of legal marriage.
Continue ReadingThe Forgotten Child Bride in the United States
December 1, 2022
In this blog post, staffer Rachel Emendorfer discusses child marriage in the United States, the current landscape of legal issues surrounding marriages involving minors, and the specific impact child marriage has on young girls.
Continue ReadingCuba’s 2022 Family Code: A Different Model for Social Progress
November 2, 2022
In this blog post, staffer Buchanan Waller analyzes the development of and reasons for success behind Cuba’s 2022 Family Code.
Continue ReadingIs My Family Constitution Unconstitutional?
May 2, 2019
by Allison Anna Tait
Every high-wealth family should write a constitution, at least that’s what wealth managers say. Because, “[w]ithout careful planning and stewardship, a hard earned fortune can easily be dissipated within a generation or two.” The aphorism “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” vividly captures this phenomenon and its universalism demonstrates how widespread and entrenched the problem is.
A Full Constellation of Benefits: How In Re the Custody of N.S.V. Exemplifies the Need for Courts and Legislatures to Readdress Definitions of Parenthood in Light of the Recognition of Same-sex Relationships
June 21, 2022
View/Download PDF Version By Esther Raty† Two women fall in love, move in together, and decide to start a family.[1] While two women cannot both genetically[2] be the parent of one child, they can choose when to have a child, which sperm donor to use, and how to co-parent a child.[3] However, no matter how…
Continue ReadingDiscriminating Against Survivors of Domestic Violence as Sex-Based Discrimination Under Title VII
April 6, 2022
By Kendra Saathoff* Discriminating against a woman for being a victim of domestic violence is sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Domestic violence is a workplace issue, whether from an abuser threatening an office and the workers in it or because a survivor needs to miss work to ensure she…
Continue ReadingChoice or Coercion? How the Push to Avoid Formal Foster Care Has Contributed to the Creation of a Dangerous Hidden Foster Care System
February 2, 2022
By Sydnie Peterson* Family units will often come into contact with child protective agencies when they are at their most vulnerable and in crisis. This was the case for Brian Hogan, whose first experience with local child protective agencies occurred after his wife experienced a heart attack and was sent to a hospital approximately two…
Continue ReadingSigning Away Your Right to Parent: How Safety Plans Evade Due Process Requirements in Child Welfare Proceedings
April 20, 2022
By Eleanor Khirallah While safety plans are supposedly voluntary and lack the court’s involvement, there have been many questions about the coercion involved in having parents sign these agreements. This is particularly true because these plans may be used to deprive parents of their right to custody of their children without due process of law.
Continue ReadingConstitutional Arguments for the Legal Recognition of Bigamous Marriages
October 7, 2021
by Esther Raty* Introduction Bigamy, “the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another,”[1] is illegal in the United States.[2] If a person’s first marriage remains intact, their second marriage is not legally binding and can even lead to criminal charges.[3] Bigamy laws prohibit individuals in polygamous and…
Continue ReadingChildren’s Online Privacy in the Age of Influencers
September 24, 2021
The children of family vloggers are often on-screen from the moment they are born—“birth vlogs” are a popular subgenre. Pregnancy is chronicled in excruciating detail, often with a focus on “gender reveals” and a highly anticipated buildup to the reveal of the child’s name.
Continue ReadingA Discriminatory Definition of “Mother:” The Injustice of the British Birth Registry System
September 21, 2021
Sharon Beck* Freddy McConnell, a single father in the United Kingdom, is expecting his second child in early 2022. When they are born, they will join Freddy’s family, which also includes his first child, SJ. Since giving birth to SJ in 2018, Freddy has raised him as a single father, happily and by choice. But both of his children’s birth certificates will list Freddy as their mother, not father, which Freddy has been fighting since he gave birth to SJ.
Continue ReadingWhere There’s Not a Will, There’s a Way: What We Can Learn From Same-Sex Adult Adoption
March 24, 2021
Sharon Maher[1] Like many same-sex couples hearing about the landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges,[2] Bill Novak and Norman MacArthur were excited to finally marry each other. But unlike most couples, Novak and MacArthur still had one more legal hurdle in the way of their union: they were legally father and son.[3] In 2000, after…
Continue ReadingDoes Minnesota’s Third-Party Visitation Rights Statute Apply to Unmarried, Same-Sex Couples?
March 16, 2021
A survey of the past, present and possible future of visitation rights for unmarried same-sex couples.
Continue ReadingHow Family Law Court Exacerbates the Effects of Domestic Violence
February 2, 2021
Kendra Saathoff* In family law court, custody proceedings can be made difficult by a history of domestic violence between the parents. Ultimately, judges’ interpretation of demeanor influences their fact finding and can lead them to determining domestic violence has not occurred when it has, or that it is not relevant to their determination of custody.…
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