The ABA e-Journal explains how grandparenting time laws have fared after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Troxel.
Geri L. Dreiling writes (excerpt):
According to Washburn University law professor Linda Elrod, who is also the editor of the Family Law Quarterly for the ABA’s Family Law Section, most courts have imposed four different requirements to find nonparental visitation laws valid in the wake of Troxel:
* They limit the number of people who can seek relief.
* They give deference to parents’ wishes.
* They require the grandparents to show they have a relationship with the child.
* They use the standard of what is in the child’s best interest.
Elrod says the fourth factor is where some states differ. “Probably a majority of states say the best interest of the child” standard applies, whereas a “few states feel that the Constitution requires them to say the grandparents have to show the child would be harmed by a lack of contact.”