The Assault on Parental Rights in America

Abstract

It is a well-established constitutional principle protected as fundamental that parents have the right to direct the upbringing of their children. A fit parent is presumed to be the best authority to accommodate the best interests of his or her children. The United States Supreme Court has traditionally protected parental rights, but today in America governments and third parties are interfering with fit parents exercising their rights over their children in caring for their best interests. What is happening in America today to parents is an assault on their rights as parents, resulting in the law being used as a vehicle of opposition to those rights, toward deconstruction of parental authority and America’s best interest legal structure. This article considers these concerns, highlighting recent attacks on parental rights and authority in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, in life support, in education, in gender dysphoria, illustrating that parents have been undermined and denied their rights to protect the best interests of their children. Section I details recent events surrounding Covid-19, and then illustrates that long before the pandemic parents have been fighting for the very lives of their children, and losing. Section II discusses state efforts to protect parental rights in statutory code and legislative measures, in the context of constitutional authority already granted to parents to protect the best interests of their children. Section III then examines the difference between children’s rights and parental rights to protect the best interests of the child, and why emerging international notions on children’s rights should never replace constitutional parental rights in America. They do only to the harm of children and their parental protection. By examining these concerns, this article raises and explains some of the most important policy debates on parental rights, children’s rights, and families today. It will reveal the unwitting if not active deconstruction of the family, and how we think about rights and duties between family members, while arguing that the relationship between a parent and child is a constitutionally protected liberty interest that deserves renewed protection under parental rights.