Overview: Child Custody Rally
Are you one of these parents? Raw footage of parents sharing their experiences with the family courts when they wanted to continue to be an equal part of their child's life.
www.fixfamilycourts.com Sherry and Ron B Palmer produced this video.
In standard family court litigation, fit parents are routinely told that trial judges have unbounded discretion to divide custody and assign possession schedules. However, controlling Supreme Court jurisprudence strictly establishes that natural parental rights cannot be denied, stripped, or nullified without proving unfitness under strict scrutiny. Understanding these core constitutional protections empowers parents to hold attorneys and trial judges accountable to the law.
Executive Summary & Key Takeaways
- ✓ Exposes the procedural and constitutional defects in standard family court custody proceedings.
- ✓ Explains why fundamental parental rights are protected under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.
- ✓ Equips parents with actionable legal arguments to counter judicial overreach and preserve the record for appeal.
Key Topics & Video Timestamps
Navigate directly to specific topics, arguments, and strategic insights covered in this presentation (1 indexed chapters):
Full Presentation: Child Custody Rally
Complete presentation (12:09) covering core parental rights and strategic legal arguments.
Constitutional Principles & Controlling Precedents
This presentation directly implicates fundamental constitutional guarantees and controlling appellate precedents:
Cited Judicial Precedents
Constitutional Protections Invoked
Companion Article Why Family Courts Must Change to Protect Children and Parents Read Written Guide ↓ Hide Written Guide ↑ ▼
Why Family Courts Must Change to Protect Children and Parents
Family courts in America are facing a major crisis. Every day, judges make life-changing decisions that tear families apart. Many parents feel the system is broken and unfair. In states like Louisiana and Florida, parents are standing up to demand equal rights. They believe the law should protect the bond between a child and both parents. This post looks at the struggles parents face in divorce court and why equal parenting is so important for children.
The Fight for Equal Rights in Family Court
Parents are fighting for rights that the Constitution should already guarantee. These rights belong to both mothers and fathers. Right now, many state courts ignore these basic protections. When a couple divorces, the court often strips rights away from one parent. This makes the children suffer.
Children deserve to have both parents in their lives equally. They need to learn moral and civic values from both a mom and a dad. They also need to learn about their religious values and First Amendment rights. When a judge takes one parent away, the child loses a massive part of their education and growth.
The Problem with Judicial Discretion
Judges hold a lot of power in divorce cases. Often, they make decisions based only on their own opinions. They call this the best interest of the child. However, the Supreme Court has said that judges should not replace a fit parent's opinion with their own.
Despite this, many divorce court judges feel they are above the law. They believe they have special power because state legislatures gave it to them a long time ago. This near-absolute power can lead to corruption. It keeps a system running that treats parents and children like they are not equal.
The High Cost of the Legal System
The legal system is very expensive. Many parents spend their life savings just to see their children. This creates a gap between people who have money and those who do not.
| Expense Type | Impact on Parents |
|---|---|
| Attorney Fees | Can cost ,000 or more per parent. |
| Court Costs | Filing motions and pleadings adds up quickly. |
| Lost Wages | Time spent in court is time away from work. |
| Emotional Toll | The stress of fighting affects health and family bonds. |
One parent shared a story of spending ,000. Even after spending all that money, nobody told him he had rights. He felt the system did not care about the kids. He believed the court only cared about money.
Forced Settlements
When parents run out of money, they often lose their case. One mother had to fire her lawyer because she could not afford him anymore. Because the father still had a lawyer, she was forced to settle. She had to let him be the main parent. This was not because she was a bad parent, but because she ran out of cash. This shows that the system often favors the person with the most money.
How Children Become Second Class Citizens
In the past, children born out of wedlock were treated like second-class citizens. The Supreme Court eventually stopped this. They said all children must have equal protection under the law.
However, divorce courts are doing something similar today. The moment a parent files for divorce, the children lose their status. They are no longer treated as children who deserve two parents. They are deprived of one parent for no good reason.
The Loss of the Parent-Child Bond
When the court separates a child from a parent, the bond breaks. A parent might start with a lovely bond where the kids run to hug them. Over time, the court system can make them strangers.
- Courts encourage separation by limiting time.
- Legal papers treat children like property.
- A "visitor" label hurts the relationship between a father and his child.
One father mentioned that he is not a visitor. He is a loving father. Yet, the court uses words that make him feel like a stranger in his own children's lives.
What Parents Are Asking For
Parents are not asking for special favors. They are asking for equal access. They want the same time and the same rights as the other parent.
Many times, lawyers do not even ask for equal time. One parent asked his lawyer for equal time. The lawyer told him that "equal time" meant seeing the kids from Friday to Sunday. That is not equal. That is just a weekend visit. The lawyers and judges often decide what happens without really listening to what the family needs.
Who Knows What Is Best?
The people who know what is best for children are the parents.
- Parents understand their children's daily needs.
- Attorneys often focus on winning or billing hours.
- Judges only see a small snapshot of the family's life.
- Guardians ad Litem (GALs) can be biased or ill-informed.
It is time to stop letting biased judges abuse their power. A parent should not have to explain why they should be "allowed" to have equal custody. That right should be the starting point for every fit parent.
The Call for Change
This issue affects everyone. It affects brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. If you have not dealt with family court yet, someone you love might have to later. The current system is old and corrupt. It relies on power that was given hundreds of years ago.
We must demand that legislators change the rules. We need laws that protect the rights of fit parents. Children deserve to have both parents in their lives. The "winner takes all" style of family court must end.
Family court should support families, not destroy them. It is time to wake up and see the truth. We need to stop the corruption and bring equality back to our courts. Every child deserves both parents, and every fit parent deserves equal rights. Giving one parent more power than the other only hurts the children in the end.
Full Video Transcript
so we're here to support parents whether they be male or female we're father or mother we're here to support parents in their battle to gain equal rights with their children rights that are supposed to be guaranteed by the Constitution which this state Louisiana and all other 49 states ignore and the borce court judges every day violate the constitution by stripping rights away from one parent or the other and making another set of children second class and have making that set of children live without both parents equally in their in their lives they stripped the ability of that child to learn from both of their parents equally to learn their moral values their civic values their religious
values their first amendment rights to receive this education directly from each of their parents equally they lose this right because of the whim of a judge because some divorce court judge likes his power or her power of being able to say you get the child and you don't based on what based on that judge's opinion of the child's best interest and this this judge is making an opinion when the Supreme Court has clearly said that that family law judges may not substitute their opinion for a child's best interest for that of a fit parent right the Supreme Court has said this very clearly in almost those exact words and yet Divorce Court judges say
that doesn't apply to us we're above the Constitution we don't have to comply we're special and they believe that way because they've been given near absolute power Again by legislators like these legislators that work right here in this building they've been given this near absolute power for hundreds of years and so as with any other group of people who get near absolute power they are nearly absolutely corrupt when you first went through this delic were you told that you had any rights not at all did you have a lawyer they both suffer did they use a lot of money $55,000 a piece was there ever at any time that anyone told you that you had rights no
cannot create two unequal classes of parents or two unequal classes of children based on nothing more than the marital status of the parents they did this for hundreds of years so they do this based on nothing more than a change in your marital status and as we've said the United States Supreme Court said this is unacceptable for hundreds of years we had this regime here and in Europe and in England they had this regime where bastard children children born out of wedlock were second class children and that was okay for hundreds of years but it's not okay under our constitution it's not okay under equal protection and yet we live this every
day in divorce based on nothing more than the change in your marital status your children are created as second class citizens who do not get the right to have both parents in their lives equally the children of married parents get to have their children their children get to have both parents in their lives equally and there then so they have full rights but the minute you file for divorce or divorce is filed against you your children lose their status as equal children in this country they are deprived of one parent of the or the other on for no basis whatsoever when you first started this were you having any trouble with the relationship
with your children well at first you know my kids and I we had such a lovely Bond it wouldn't it couldn't be no place where it was if they see me they'll just break free and just run to now but now since they older it's like we all just totally strange I have no bond with them do you think the courts helped encourage that yeah the courts helped encourag it and also it separates our kids just buy a piece of paper because to me it's just a money thing they do not care about those kids they do not care about the wellbeing of nothing have you were someone you love been separated from your child
unjustly do you feel that family courts are unfair and biased in their wrong thinking should fit parents be denied equal access to their children just because the other parent wants the upper hand he didn't even want me to have standard visitation I ended up having to fire my attorney because I couldn't afford to keep paying him so I had to end up settling I was forced to to let the father be the domicilary parent because he had an attorney I didn't I ran out of money this has to stop I chose to terminate my marriage for personal reasons that I won't go into but I can tell you this I never once chose to terminate or
limit my access to my twins what about my rights to equal access to my children what about my children's rights to have both parents in their lives equally did you ever ask them if you could have equal time with your children yes I do who who did you ask if you could have your kids equal time the lawyer really my lawyer discussed what did say to you first time you asked do you remember um he told me he said well I can have equal time with him I can fried this from 6 to Sunday to 6 so that was their idea of equal time yeah so from the very beginning all the Motions
the pleadings everything that went in front of the judge never asked for you to be an equal parent ever so you paid the attorneys to ask for visitation for you does that sound like what's in the children's best interest only parents know what's in their children's best interest not attorneys not gals and certainly not biased judges who abuse their power I went through almost two years of fighting for equal custody everyone in the courtroom knew I wanted equal custody I knew that something was very wrong with the family court system when my former wife's attorney demanded that I tell her why I should be allowed to be granted equal custody as if that was hers to
Grant citizens of Florida it's time to wake up wake up and see the truth of what is happening this will affect you at some point in your life whether it's you a brother a sister a daughter a son or just a friend I'm not a visitor I'm a loving father and yet the family Family Court calls me a visitor right this this old saying that with absolute come power comes absolute corruption is evident in our divorce courts every day and it needs to stop and it needs to stop now thank you oh oh oh oh oh oh I