Family Law Prof Blog

New Hampshire: Same-Sex Adultery is Recognized

From The Union Leader:

In a unanimous ruling, the state Supreme Court on Thursday expanded the definition of the term adultery to apply to a spouse engaged in same-sex infidelity. The four justices overturned a 2003 decision (Blanchflower) that limited adultery to intercourse between members of the opposite sex.

In Blaisdell, the case involves the at-fault divorce allegation. A circuit court judge had determined that Mrs. Blaisdell’s alleged infidelity with another woman did not fit the definition of adultery set by the earlier court decision. Thursday’s ruling overturned that decision.

New Hampshire recognizes both no-fault and at-fault divorces. With at-fault divorce, a spouse alleges actions, such as adultery, that can challenge the expectation that marital assets will be divided equally. The case now returns to the divorce court.

Read more here.

Alimony Reform

From WCTV:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Permanent alimony would end under legislation headed to the House floor, but it’s a provision in the bill dealing with time-sharing of children seems to be causing the most controversy.

Under the legislation, alimony payments could only last for half the length of a marriage, unless the recipient is medically needy or caring for a disabled child.

During a divorce proceeding courts would start with a presumption both parents should be entitled to an equal time-share of their children.

The bill now moves to the House floor and has one more committee stop in the Senate. If passed, the changes would apply to all divorces in which a final order has not been issued prior to July 1st 2021.

Read more here.

Gender Equity in 136 Years

From CNBC:

The World Economic Forum predicts it will now take 135.6 years to reach gender equality — as the pandemic set the world back by a generation, delaying parity by about 36 years.

Saadia Zahidi, a managing director at the World Economic Forum, told CNBC that “100 years to global gender parity was already not good enough — and now (it is) 136 years globally.”

“The pandemic has had a massive impact, and essentially rolled back a lot of the progress that was made in the past,” she told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Wednesday.

Read more here.

 

Vaccinations Cause More Concerns in Family Law Disputes

From Law Times:

Disputes between parents with regard to their children's scope of activities during COVID had been increased with the lockdown and pandemic arrangements.

When Summer approached, parents disputed about whether children should go on a trip during pandemic. When back to school approached, parents fought about whether children should attend school in person or remotely.

There has been no shortage of family law files since pandemic, and attorneys are expected to see more family law disputes with child custody and parents' vaccination decisions for their children.

Read more here.

Family Law Scholars & Teachers

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We write to invite you to join us at the Fourteenth Annual Family Law Scholars and Teachers (FLST) Conference, which will take place this year on Monday June 21, 2021.  The conference will be conducted virtually via Zoom and will be hosted by Brooklyn Law School. As in previous years, the conference  will provide an opportunity for us to share scholarship, pool our knowledge on teaching issues,    talk about our field and professional development, and get to know one another.

If you are interested in attending this year’s FLST conference, please make sure to read all the way to the bottom of this invitation letter, as the letter includes a number of upcoming deadlines.

In order to maintain a more intimate, safe space where there is an opportunity for each participant to present their work, we are continuing our practice of keeping the conference small. Space is limited (selected purely on a first-come, first- served basis), so please register as soon as possible, but no later than Friday, April 16, 2021. We will keep a waiting list so that if anyone cancels, we will invite people on the waiting    list to attend the conference.

Conference sessions 

As in past years, the conference will provide an opportunity to present and receive feedback in small groups on works-in-progress (WIP) and incubator projects.  In addition, the conference committee is planning a “Show-and-tell” teaching session, as well as a workshop on How to Write a Book.  We also welcome colleagues to join the conference to comment on other people’s work without presenting their own project if they wish.  All participants including commentators must register for the conference by April 16, 2021. 

• Works-in-progress (WIP) presentations. We invite you to present a work in progress (WIP) for feedback. Participants will be assigned to small breakout sessions designed to foster intensive discussion of each WIP. The size of each workshop will depend on the number of proposals submitted.   WIP Participants will need submit an abstract now, and then a minimum of 10 pages of their project in advance of the conference.

If more papers are submitted than time allows to be discussed, the planning committee will select the papers that will be presented based on subject matter, methodology, etc. Participants are welcome to present papers that have been already accepted for publication, but in the spirit of works-in-progress, we ask that participants refrain from presenting accepted papers that are too far along in the production process for feedback from the conference to be incorporated.

• Incubator presentations. Incubator presentations allow those  who have an early-stage idea to get substantial feedback on the idea without submitting a paper. Participants will submit a short summary (1-5 pages) describing their idea, and very briefly introduce the idea to the group. The small group will then provide reactions, including suggestions for framing of the idea, appropriate formats or audiences, and further reading or research strategies. The planning committee will make judgments about how many incubators can be accommodated depending on how many applications we receive; priority will go to people in their first three years of teaching.

• Teaching Show-and-tell. This session will give conference participants the opportunity to share instructional strategies that they have used in their classrooms, or strategies that they have formulated and plan to use. This could include simulation exercises, group work, assessment strategies, visuals, or any other strategies you use to help your students learn. This assessment might be graded or ungraded, provided to individual students or to the class as a group. Presenters will have the opportunity to briefly explain the strategy or provide participants with a copy of the exercise.  Depending on the number of presenters, this session may also enable presenters  to lead the group in experiencing the instructional strategy firsthand.  Emphasis will be on the Show part of Show and Tell, with the goal that conference participants will be able to then implement the strategy in their own We encourage participants at all stages of their teaching career to sign up to present at this session.  Teaching approaches that foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in family law, and which incorporate critical perspectives, are especially relevant.

• So You Want to Write a Book? This breakout session will provide information for participants interested in authoring a book. Seasoned family law professors will present on how to conceptualize a book project, pitch it to publishers, and see it to fruition.

Registration

As noted above, registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, so please register as soon as possible, but no later than Friday April 16, 2021.   Because space is limited, if you are interested in participation, be quick to register!

To sign up for the 2021 FLST Conference, please go to https://forms.gle/iVU722ov7h5Mn4bD6

Works In Progress Presentations

If you would like to make a WIP presentation, the submission form will ask you to provide:

• Your paper’s title;
• The topic of your paper;
• A 500 word abstract or summary of your paper;
• Your name and institutional affiliation;
• Number of years you have been in academia; and
• A list of your areas of interest and expertise.

Incubator Presentations

If you would like to make an incubator presentation, the submission form will ask you to provide:

• The title of your incubator project;
• The topic of your incubator project;
• A brief description of your project;
• Your name and institutional affiliation;
• Number of years you have been in teaching/academia; and
• A list of your areas of interest and expertise.

Invitation for Teaching Show and Tell

We would also like to use this opportunity to invite presenters to briefly “show and tell” their teaching strategies. Please indicate your interest on the google form. 

Joining the conference as a commentator

You are welcome to join the conference to comment on other people’s work without presenting your own project.  If you would like to join the conference as a commentator, please register at https://forms.gle/iVU722ov7h5Mn4bD6

Questions 

If you have questions about registering for the 2021 conference, please contact Susan Hazeldean at susan.hazeldean@brooklaw.edu or Sarah Katz, at sarah.katz@temple.edu.  If you have any other general questions, please feel free to contact any of us on the planning committee.

We are very excited about this conference. We look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you in in June!

Warm regards,

Susan Hazeldean (co-chair)

Sarah Katz (co-chair)

Meghan Boone

Charisa Smith

Gregg Strauss

  Shanta Trivedi

Nofar Yakovi Gan-Or

Jordan Blair Woods

The Impact of Inheritance

From Vox:

A large amount of cash is expected to move from the pockets of boomers to everyone younger, though guesses at just how much and when vary: Forbes reports $30 trillion over “many years,” PNC says $59 trillion by 2061, CNBC mentions $68 trillion and 25 years, and the New York Times confirms the variety of these assessments but puts it at around $15 trillion over the next decade.

[A] big, generational transfer is on the horizon, and while part of it is precipitated by possible changes to the generous inheritance laws the Trump administration put in place, as the baby boomers tick up in age, part of it is just the cycle of life.

In “Not All Millennials,” published in the Drift, Kiara Barrows noted that “the distribution of this inheritance will fall along the lines of existing inequalities, deepening the fractures in any millennial program of economic solidarity.” And that’s certainly true — the nation’s top 1 percent have received more than 35 percent of the inherited wealth, according to Edward Wolff, a professor at New York University and the author of Inherited Wealth in America: Future Boom or Bust?

But Wolff also says, surprisingly, that inherited wealth isn’t a huge driver of inequality in America — it actually has had an equalizing effect. And there’s no indication that the next decades will be any different.

The reason is deceptively simple: While much (much!) more money flows among the rich, for middle- and low-income people who receive gifts or inheritance, they represent a larger percentage of wealth. So large, in fact, that for some people, a gift from mom or dad is the thing that will keep them middle class.

But recipients-wise, we’re not talking about a lot of people. Twenty-two percent of American households receive a wealth transfer, Wolff says in a phone interview — a significant figure but certainly not a majority.

Read more here.

Turkish Women Protest Over Erdogan’s Decision To Exit Domestic Violence Treaty

From Reuters:

Several thousand women took to the streets in Istanbul on Saturday to demand Turkey reverses its decision to withdraw from an international treaty against domestic abuse which it once championed.

President Tayyip Erdogan stunned European allies with last week’s announcement that Turkey was pulling out of the Istanbul Convention, named after the Turkish city where it was drafted in 2011.

World Health Organization data shows 38% of women in Turkey are subject to violence from a partner in their lifetime, compared with 25% in Europe.

Read more here.

How Polyamorists and Polygamists Are Challenging Family Norms

From The New Yorker:

As many as sixty thousand people in the United States practice polygamy, including Hmong Americans, Muslims of various ethnicities, and members of the Pan-African Ausar Auset Society. But polygamists face innumerable legal obstacles, affecting such matters as inheritance, hospital visits, and parentage rights. If wives apply for benefits as single parents, they are lying, and may be committing welfare fraud; but if they file joint tax returns they are breaking the law. 

In 2015, when the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a dissent arguing that, if a system denying marriage to gay and lesbian couples represented an assault on their constitutional rights, existing marriage restrictions must similarly “disrespect and subordinate people who find fulfillment in polyamorous relationships.” Roberts continued, “Although the majority randomly inserts the adjective ‘two’ in various places, it offers no reason at all why the two-person element of the core definition of marriage may be preserved while the man-woman element may not.” 

In 2017, the Uniform Law Commission, an association that enables states to harmonize their laws, drafted a new Uniform Parentage Act, one provision of which facilitates multiple-parent recognition. Versions of the provision have passed in California, Washington, Maine, Vermont, and Delaware, and it is under consideration in several other states. Courts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Texas, Arizona, and Louisiana have also supported the idea of third parents.

The campaigns of both polygamists and polyamorists to have their unions recognized point to the larger questions that swarm around marriage battles: what are the government’s interests in marriage and family, and why does a bureaucratic system sustain such a relentless focus on who has sexual relationships with whom? Surveys in the past decade have consistently found that four to five per cent of American adults—more than ten million people—already practice some form of consensual nonmonogamy, and the true number, given people’s reticence about stigmatized behaviors, is almost certainly higher.

Read more here.

ICE Says It Is Ending Use of Family Detention

From The National Law Review:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disclosed in a Federal Court filing that it is ending the use of family detention and transitioning it to short-term facilities. These facilities will release families after no more than 72 hours.

Originally there were three detention centers, two in Texas – Dilley and Karnes – and one in Pennsylvania, the Berks Family Residential Center. As of March 5, 2021, only thirteen families remained in detention, and seven had been scheduled for release that day. 

All the families in the Berks Family Residential Center were released as of February 26. ICE further disclosed that the Pennsylvania detention center will be closed, and the two Texas facilities will be used as short-term detention centers.

Read more here. 

Third Parties Can Have Child Custody Rights Too In Pennsylvania

From JD Supra:

In Pennsylvania, a parent of a minor child may file an action for physical and/or legal custody of the child.  In certain circumstances, this right is also extended to grandparents and third parties who stand in loco parentis to the child.  Therefore, though it is presumed the parent has a right to custody, it may be forfeited if, by convincing evidence, the best interest of the child is served by awarding custody to a third party.

A person who stands in loco parentis has created a parent-like relationship to the child sufficient to warrant providing that individual the right to seek continued contact with the child.  This status can be conferred upon any third party, including, but not limited to, current or ex-spouses or partners, friends, siblings, and distant relatives.

For those grandparents who are unable to prove they stand in loco parentis, Pennsylvania has enacted specific provisions to provide them with alternative means to seek custody.  

Grandparents who do not meet the elements for standing to sue for any form of physical or legal may still have the means to insert themselves into a custody dispute if they meet the elements for standing to sue for partial custody or visitation rights.  This standing is further extended to great-grandparents who do not stand in loco parentis to the child.

Read more here.

Pandemic Hit Households Relying on Both Incomes

From NBC News:

The pandemic upended the lives of millions of families who suddenly found themselves without one or both sources of income. Many have gone from enjoying the cultural markers of the middle class — job stability, homeownership and some disposable income — to teetering on the edge of poverty.

Some experts fear the effects could be long-lasting.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 115 million people had experienced losses in employment income from the start of the pandemic in March 2020 through last month.

And according to a Pew Research Center report released this month, more than 4 in 10 adults say they or someone else in their households had lost jobs or wages since the beginning of the pandemic.

Even with unemployment insurance, which struggled with claim delays amid unprecedented demand, and other benefits, the impact could have ramifications for years, economic experts and advocates said.

The Pew Research Center survey found that about half of nonretired adults said the economic impact of the pandemic will make it harder for them to achieve their long-term financial goals. Among those who said their financial situations had gotten worse, 44 percent said they thought it would take them three years or more to get back to where they were a year ago, and about 1 in 10 said they didn't think their finances would ever recover.

Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization, said lower- and middle-income families alike were vulnerable to major economic instability after losses of income.

"It's incredibly destabilizing in the short run," she said. "People just simply don't have the savings to be able to weather job losses or to cut back on hours or furloughs to be able to continue paying their bills," she said.

Losing a home, facing declines in its credit score or the continued inability to get a job could also affect a family long after the pandemic is over, she said.

Accolla said it took six or seven years to build what her family had, "and it went away within the quickness of one year."

Facing credit card debt and having to spend their savings, she wonders just when they will be able to recover.

"Are we going to be able to recover again? Will we get back to a place of comfortability? Will we be able to have a home?" she asked.

Elizabeth Ananat, an economics professor at Barnard College in New York City, said the pandemic led to major workforce declines. Some people are unable to work because of responsibilities such as being caregivers, and others want to work but have given up looking.

Food insecurity has skyrocketed, she said, especially among families with young children.

"They've lost more jobs, and of course those are children who need to be cared for all the time," she said, adding that the income losses have translated directly into "these really severe material hardships," such as evictions or the threats of them and increases in hunger.

The losses have been especially devastating for women, as well as Black and Latino families, she said.

Naomi Cahn, director of the Family Law Center at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the pandemic has had a "disproportionate impact on families of color."

"That's a really, really important part of the story," she said.

In an analysis of data collected last month in the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, the research organization Child Trends found that 24 percent of U.S. adults in households with children, or 1 in 4, reported having limited confidence that they would be able to make their next rent or mortgage payments on time. Among Black households with children, the number was 40 percent.

The Biden administration has said its $1.9 trillion relief package will lift 11 million people out of poverty "and cut child poverty in half."

"That could provide at least some temporary stability for many families," Cahn said.

Read more here.

Hundreds of US families have been trying for a year to adopt children from China. They're still waiting

From CNN:

According to the State Department, about 400 American families' adoptions of children in China were put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a February 2021 letter to families, the Chinese government said foreign adoptions are suspended due to Covid-19, but did not provide any information on when they might resume.

 

"Before resuming adoption registration, we will actively cooperate with local civil affairs departments and child welfare agencies by the rehabilitation needs of adoptive families," the letter said.

 

The US State Department told CNN they "have made clear" to China "the importance of resuming intercountry adoptions as a high priority and as soon as health conditions allow." The department said it is committed to working with China to find a solution.

 

Read more here.

With More Women In State Office, Family Leave Policies Have Not Caught Up

From NPR:

Seven weeks ago, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow became the second woman to give birth while serving in the state Senate.

Because McMorrow isn't an employee of the state of Michigan – rather an elected official whose pay is written into the state constitution — she doesn't qualify for parental leave. In Michigan, there is no actual parental leave policy for state legislators.

Lawmakers, technically speaking, can take as much or as little time off as they want. The catch: They miss votes, both in committee and on the floor and Michigan is one of about 20% of states that serves on a full-time basis. Aside from a short summer recess, lawmakers work the entire year.

It's not just Michigan. There's no set policy for parental leave in place or mechanism to participate in committees or session remotely for full-time lawmakers in Ohio. And while there are temporary provisions for remote participation in Pennsylvania this year — there isn't a policy in place there either.

These conversations about parental leave policies are new, according to Jean Sinzdak, the Associate Director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. One of the reasons: Three-quarters of all elected officials are still men.

Read more here.

Russian Surrogacy Laws

From BioEdge:

“Russia’s liberal surrogacy rules are under threat,” reports The Economist. The country has become a haven for foreigners seeking cheap surrogate mothers. A woman’s services can be purchased for about US$20,000, much less expensive than the United States.

But after bad publicity over the death of a baby who was intended for a Filipino couple, the practice could be banned for foreigners. “Russia is not an incubator,” says Irina Yarovaya, a deputy speaker of the Duma, Russia’s parliament.

The Economist interprets hostility towards surrogacy as hostility towards commissioning parents who are single men or gay and hostility towards a woman’s right to choose surrogacy as an employment option.

It is true that Russia is not a haven for gay couples. Last year, President Vladimir Putin pushed through a new constitution which included a ban on same-sex marriage. “As far as ‘parent number one’ and ‘parent number two’ go…as long as I’m president this will not happen. There will be dad and mum,” he said.

Read more here.

Texas's 7 Bills Support Anti-Abortion

From KWTX:

Last week, a Texas Senate committee heard, voted on and passed out of committee seven bills that would limit access to abortion across the state.

Anti-abortion and abortion rights advocates alike have said that the upper chamber is moving quickly — more quickly than it has in previous legislative sessions.

One of the most notable bills is Senate Bill 8 by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, which would ban an abortion after a fetal heartbeat had been detected. Another bill fast-tracked by the Senate is Senate Bill 9, which would ban most abortions in Texas if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that found that state laws banning abortions were unconstitutional. Senate Bill 802 would require that women were offered certain pre-abortion resources and create a government database to keep track of that information. Other bills would ban later-term abortions in certain cases and prohibit cities from spending money on various support services related to abortions.

Read more here.

Illinois City Workers Now Have Paid Paternity Leave

From FOX Illinois:

After the passage of an ordinance on Tuesday, Springfield city workers will get four weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave.

Ward 8 Alderman Erin Conley pleaded with the council to pass this, saying it will show future mothers and fathers that the city cares about them and their families.

Before this ordinance, city workers had to use their sick, vacation, and personal days for parental leave.

Read more here.

Paid Bereavement Leave in NZ

From CNN:

New Zealand will become one of the world's only countries to offer paid bereavement leave for workers who suffer a miscarriage, after lawmakers unanimously approved the motion on Wednesday.

Employees in the country will be entitled to three days' leave after a miscarriage under the law, which is set to gain royal assent after passing its final stage in parliament.

 

Ginny Andersen, the Labour MP who introduced the bill, said it would make New Zealand only the second country to provide such a benefit to her knowledge. India allows women six weeks of leave after a miscarriage.

 

"I can only hope that while we may be one of the first, we will not be one of the last, and that other countries will also begin to legislate for a compassionate and fair leave system that recognizes the pain and the grief that comes from miscarriage and stillbirth," she said in parliament during the final reading of the bill.

 

Read more here.

Japan: Same-Sex Marriage Ban is Now Unconstitutional

From Washington Post:

This is the first ruling on same-sex marriage in Japan — and it is groundbreaking.

In 2019, the first lawsuits in Japan were filed in five district courts directly challenging the constitutional violation of not recognizing same-sex marriages. On Wednesday, the Sapporo District Court ruled that the current law, which does not recognize same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional because it violates the principle of equality stipulated in Article 14 of the Japanese constitution.

The ruling highlights the following: The standard of review is strict, the decision was made by indicating to the purposes and essence of marriage, and the Sapporo ruling affirmed that the majority’s understanding or acceptance was not a requirement.

Read more here.

 

 

Utah: New Legal Battles Over Israel Marriage Rights

From KSL.com:

In 2020, the Utah County Clerk's Office began offering online marriage license services that later became crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two Utah rabbis joined an administrative petition this week filed against the Israeli Interior Minister and the country's population authority in an effort to lift an order that does not recognize civil marriages for Israeli couples completed through a Utah online system.

In Israel, marriage rights have been a hotly contested debate for years. The country doesn't permit civil marriages and will not allow religious marriages unless certain criteria are met. 

Read more here.

New Zealand: Legislation Bill Proposing the Principle of Child Participation in Family Proceedings

From Scoop.co.nz:

Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa has told Parliament’s Justice select committee it supports the principle of enabling children’s views to be heard in family proceedings, but the lack of an evidence-based model for how that will work in practice means the current legislative reform carries significant risks - including that it will not achieve the fundamental objective of enhancing children’s safe participation and wellbeing.

The New Zealand Law Society’s Family Law Section presented its submission today to the select committee on the Family Court (Supporting Children in Court) Legislation Bill, endorsing the Bill’s objective of enhancing children’s participation in decisions affecting their care and wellbeing.

Without a completion of research, the Law Society believed that the Bill is premature. If Bill is to proceed, however, the Law Society has recommended amendments to ensure greater clarity and consistency with other family law legislation.

Read more here.