The Judiciary


"The court case that is most relevant to grandparents’ visitation rights is Troxel v. Granville, decided in 2000 by the U.S. Supreme Court. This case dealt a serious blow to grandparents’ rights.The heart of the decision is a statement that “fit parents” are presumed to act in their children’s best interests. This is presumed to be true even when parents cut off contact with other family members.

Tommie Granville and Brad Troxel were the unmarried parents of two daughters. When their relationship ended, Troxel, the father, often took the girls to his parents’ home for visits.

After Troxel committed suicide two years later, his parents continued to see the girls. After Tommie Granville remarried and her husband adopted the girls, she tried to limit the visits of the Troxel grandparents. The Troxels filed suit based on the Washington State statute, which didn’t actually mention grandparents but granted “third parties” the right to file for visitat
The case made its way through the court system, arriving at the Washington State Supreme Court. That court ruled that the Washington statute should have required a demonstration of harm or potential harm to the child if the visitation was denied. The court ruled the statute invalid on federal constitutional grounds.

......... Most of the major cases were not about issues of procedural due process, but substantive due process, which asks whether or not the government has a good reason to deprive someone of their rights. In many cases, the Supreme Court has said no, and have defined many more rights than originally specified in the Constitution, since the 9th amendment mentions "unenumerated" rights that are not specifically named. In some cases, maybe, you want the court to say yes, like the issue of unlimited financing of political campaigns. Many of the rights we enjoy today are a result of rights implied by the Constitution, but defined by judicial review looking at concrete cases. The notion of substantive due process then guides the process of judicial review, which itself has a defined procedure it follows, applying "strict scrutiny" in only the most important cases: