Supreme Court
in Hartford
Public Hearing on Rules and Forms
Written
Testimony of Marisa Ringel
April 14, 2014
Justices of
the Supreme Court and/or Committee of Justices members:
I
am hear today to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The
14th Amendment clearly states:
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
In
Stanley V. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651; 92 S.Ct. 1208, (1992), the U.S. Supreme
Court stressed:
“The parent-child relationship is an important interest that undeniably
warrants deference and, absent a powerful countervailing interest, protection.
..A parent’s interest in the companionship, care, custody and management of his
or her children rises to a constitutionally secured right, given the centrality
of family life as the focus for personal meaning and responsibility.”
It
is my suggestion that the Connecticut Practice Book incorporate these two
quotes to open Section 25.
Every
parent, absent abuse or neglect, in the Constitution State should have a
fundamental equal right to parent their children without the interference of
government.
While
there is legislative authority granted to provide for various awards of custody
in the State of Connecticut, there does not appear to be any specific
legislative authority for a judge in the State of Connecticut to force a parent
into “supervised visitation” absent abuse or neglect.
Yet,
in the family courts of the State of Connecticut, “supervised visitation” is
often ordered without any justification that a “child’s welfare” is in danger.
Therefore,
I am proposing a new Practice Book Rule 25-70:
“No judicial authority shall have the right to issue an order of
supervised visitation without conducting an evidentiary hearing to establish
whether there are grounds for an order to show cause that “clear and present
danger to the physical/psychological well-being of a child” exists that
requires an limited time order of supervised visitation.
No order of supervised visitation shall remain in place for more than
three months, without conducting another evidentiary hearing at which any party
can call witnesses, including those supervising the visitation, to report to
the court on their observations of the parent-child interactions.”
There
are reports in Fairfield County of supervised visitation which have been in
place for more than two years, in which fees in excess of $20,000 have been
paid by a parent to conduct a once a week four hour visitation.
Supervised
visitation cannot be seen as a “first option” response from a judicial authority
to make parenting time “unaffordable” or a “punitive measure”.
The
1886 Supreme Court decision in Yick Wo v. Hopkins 118 U.S. 356 stated:
“Law and court proceedings that are ‘fair on their faces’ but
administered ‘with an evil eye or heavy hand’ was discriminatory and violates
the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Family
courts must provide divorced parent the same rights and obligations of their
children as if still married. Otherwise,
the court is administrating a criteria in a manner which discriminates against
a class of citizens based on “un-married status”.
Such
discrimination by the family court judges against any class of citizens who are
no longer married would constitute a violation of Title 42, Section 1983.
Each
of us who is speaking today, is a victim of orders of “supervised visitation”
at the current time or in some past order issued in the family court system in
Connecticut.
Each
of us has been and has always aspired to be a “fit parent” and have been “humiliated”
and “degraded” by a family court judge who has abused their powers in
administering family court justice through ordering “supervised visitation”
without an order to show cause.
This
authority to order supervised visitation has no statutory authority and is
therefore an abuse of discretion and must be curtailed.