A new religion and custody case

[David Cruz]

Just looking at the text, it's not clear to me that it would be violated by a state's allowing a custodial parent to send a kid to a school of that parent's choosing.  A noncustodial parent would not get her way (or not during the time the other parent had custody under a joint arrangement), but she wouldn't be "sending" the kid to an objectionable school.  (A noncustodial parent would have a textually better argument if she were forced to pay some of the tuition for an objectionable school the other parent sends the kid to.)

David B. Cruz
Professor of Law
University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0071
U.S.A.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Brayton <stcynic at crystalauto.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 3:27 PM
To: 'Law & Religion issues for Law Academics' <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
Subject: A new religion and custody case

With a bit of a spin. A father in Kentucky is arguing in court that a
custody ruling requiring that his son continue to go to Catholic school is
unconstitutional under the KY constitution. Section 5 of that constitution
says:

 

"Nor shall any man be compelled to send his child to any school to which he
may be conscientiously opposed."

 

Very interesting case. The mother apparently wants the child to go to
Catholic school, so it would seem that the constitutional argument would
apply to both sides.

 

http://www.wlky.com/news/14981101/detail.html

 

Ed Brayton