The Christian Science Monitor measures the shockwaves from California’s shift on change of domicile principles.
Mark Sappenfi writes (excerpt):
. . . In general, mothers were allowed to move for virtually any legitimate reason – ranging from a new job to a new spouse. Now, it seems, judges must pay much more heed to whether they think the move will irreparably harm the relationship between the children and the father.
“It gives the trial courts more discretion,” says Joan Hollinger, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the mother. “There’s no presumption of the right of the custodial parent to change residences.”
The appeals court had decided the case precisely on that presumption. It ruled that Susan Navarro had the right to move from California to Ohio with her children because her second husband had found a job there.
The six justices of the Supreme Court majority, however, said that the move could potentially destroy any relationship the children had with their father, Gary LaMusga. It agreed with the original trial court, which ruled that the mother must give up custody if she moved to Ohio.
A primary factor was the open and intense hostility between the two parents, and the concern that the mother would use the distance to estrange the father from the children. According to a psychologist’s evaluation, which the court leaned on heavily, “each parent has different positive qualities to give and … it is in the children’s best interest to maintain a relationship with each of them.”