One quote from this news report is just astounding to me:
“He allegedly fathered dozens of children.”
I don’t know if he could ever earn enough money to pay realistic child support to any of these women.
Terry Turnage appears in court for not paying child support | WREG.com.
Same-sex marriage is a fact in California. If you are married here, you can get a divorce here whether married to a person of the same or of the opposite sex.
Interesting conflicts of law arise when people marry in one state and divorce in another. Legal truths that we all presume in California change significantly when you move to another state before seeking a divorce. For example, if you purchase a community property home in California before leaving the state and seeking a divorce in a non-community property state, the means and calculations used to divide the spouses’ relative ownership interests in that property may change drastically.
This case has been pending a long time in Ohi0. A same-sex couple married in California, but then apparently took up residence in Ohio, where one of the two sought a divorce. The courts there are now caught in a dilemma: if the state hosting the divorce proceedings does not recognize same-sex marriage at the time of the divorce, does that state have an obligation to recognize the marriage (legal in California) under the “full faith and credit” clause?
The judge on this case is taking a second look.
Judge to take second look at divorce granted to same-sex couple – The Athens Messenger: News.
Many years ago, when I first started working as a family law attorney, home school was presumed to be a haven for the fringes of society. People who had unusually strong religious beliefs, or who were sailing around the world with their kids, or who were living in communes, all home-schooled their kids. In those days, home schooled kids struggled to be accepted into four-year colleges, and were seen as poorly educated, possibly indoctrinated, and socially backward.
Courts back then echoed this sentiment. They frequently would custody of the children to the parent who wanted to put the kids into a mainstream public or private school, and express openly that the reasons for doing so were exactly as listed above: home schooled kids were weird and didn’t learn to standards.
This is all changing now. This article has a nice collection of opinions from around the nation showing the growing trend away from the previous negative presumptions about home school.
My own experience with home school has varied, but I have generally found the courts to be much more accepting nowadays. The one big exception I have encountered was a case where the child’s pro-home-school parent was engaging in severe parental “gatekeeping,” and was using home school as a means of isolating the child from the other parent. The child admitted during child custody recommending counseling that home school included repeated severely negative references to the non-home-school parent as mean and psychologically unstable (both untrue statements).
This is generally how home school works in conjunction with child custody nowadays. Home school is increasingly looked at as any other school choice, unless it is causing some harm to the children that would not be experienced in other circumstances.
Here is a link to the Washington Post article:
I will occasionally post stories like these, which show the upside-down logic of family court.
In this case, a 14 year old boy had sex with a 20 year old woman. Under Arizona law, the boy was too young to consent to the sexual encounter, making him a victim of statutory rape.
The relationship produced a child, but the boy did not know this fact.
The boy grew up, trained for a career, and started his own life. He did not find out about the child until eight years later, when the state started proceedings against him for child support.
Deployed submariner loses a round in custody battle | Navy Times | navytimes.com.
I have been tracking this case since it started. The father is a submariner in the US Navy. That means one or two times a year, he will get into a submarine and disappear for months at a time. He does not see or speak to his family during that time. It is rough life. I am glad he is willing to do this job.
He has a daughter from his first wife, and he is remarried. During the divorce his first wife was convicted of assaulting the daughter. The courts gave sole legal and physical custody to the father. He moved to the Seattle area with his daughter and wife.
Last year, the ex-wife asked the court to award her custody of the daughter. The court then started making orders that appear to violate the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. One order threatened this deployed submariner and father with sanctions for his failure to appear at a hearing. Think about this: while deployed, submariners are functionally gone from planet Earth.
Even now, the family court seems to be ignoring the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The father is still deployed on a submarine, and yet the court is entering orders modifying child custody.
I have encountered judges in my own practice who make light of the SCRA. Since then, I have seen a larger emphasis placed upon the relief the SCRA offers, but this news article is not the only case of a parent taking advantage of the deployed status of a service member. It is my hope the pending legislation aimed at preventing this kind of result in the future.
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