Ethics

Volokh on Religion and Custody Cases

By Ed Brayton

Just as I've been discussing religion and custody rulings at the Michigan Messenger, Eugene Volokh has been discussing the issue on his blog as well, I assume prompted by the discussion I started on the religionlaw listserv based on his research on the issue. One of the issues I only briefly discussed in my series was the issue of judges enforcing informal agreements about religion in custody cases.

Volokh cites a recent appeals court decision in Michigan (for some reason, Michigan seems to be ground zero for this particular issue) where a judge gave a clear preference to the father in making the custody ruling because he was more likely to take the child to church while the mother let the child decide for herself whether she wanted to go. The judge noted that early in their marriage, the parents agreed that it was important to raise their child in a religious manner. Here's an excerpt from that ruling:

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 04, 2008 (boomark / email).