Military Parents & Child Custody

A Message from the California Alliance for Families & Children 

We all know how important it is to support the men and women in the Military and National Guard, whose selfless service is protecting our country and our safety. Unfortunately, while these brave men and women of are Armed Forces are confronting our enemies abroad, they are also facing unfair treatment in our family and juvenile courts because of lapses in law.

California Alliance for Families & Children (CAFC) is acutely aware of the unfairness these military service members face, so we took a leading role to educate policy makers and the legal communities. We shared real stories of service men and women who have been impacted, and we provided the data to demonstrate the seriousness of the legal problems facing our service men and women in the family courts. As a result of our efforts in California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Senate Bill 1082 on September 1, 2005 (see SB 1082 by Senator Bill Morrow / Ducheny).

This measure helps protect parents serving in the military reserves by closing a loophole in federal family law that made national guardsmen and other reserve parents vulnerable to legal problems such as spousal kidnapping of their children.

This was the first piece of legislation in the nation to really begin addressing some of the problems faced by military parents that passed. As a direct result of our efforts, Michigan and Kentucky soon followed California’s example. Moreover, our continued effort to bring this issue to the forefront led to the recent introduction of similar legislation in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Oklahoma, Ohio and Alaska. Florida’s legislation was just passed (with not a single no vote) and is awaiting the governor’s signature so that it can be enacted on July 1, 2007.

Our efforts have not gone unnoticed and many of the family law problems faced by our military parents have finally gained national attention — thanks to Associated Press national reporter, Pauline Arrillaga. The national AP news release, "Deployed Troops Battle for Child Custody," broke nationally on May 5, 2007, and appeared in well over 100 major news sources. CAFC’s Executive Director and Policy Consultant, Michael Robinson, was interviewed and quoted in the news story. ( See the story here as it appeared in the Washington Post.) The case of Spc. Lisa Hayes, a National Guard reservist facing desertion charges for refusing to return to Iraq in the middle of her child custody fight, has also been in the news repeatedly:

• Good Morning America:
  "AWOL Mom Chose Her Daughter Over Her Country"
  June 11, 2007
• ABC World News:
  "Single Parents Who Serve in Uniform Say They Are Losing Custody of Their Kids"
  (Requires Windows Media)
  June 8, 2007
• Good Morning America:
  "An Army Mother’s Tug of War"
  June 7, 2007

This issue is heightening awareness about the problems faced by our service men and women, but is also pointing out the inherent inability of the family courts to sensibly apply the "best interests of the child" test.

These stories really focused much-needed attention on the many problems that plague the nation’s family law courts. Since AP broke the story, many other media outlets, such as National Public Radio’s nationally syndicated program "Here and Now" and MSNBC cable news have started to cover this important issue.  Military.com even started an Action Alert: Tell your public officials how you feel about this issue.

• Listen to the NPR "Here and Now" coverage here. (This will require Real Time Player.)
• Watch the MSNBC report here.

As a result of all the public and media scrutiny, on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, the United States House of Representatives passed an amendment to prevent soldiers deployed to war from permanently losing custody of their children based on their absence. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) offered the amendment after reading the Associated Press story. Additionally, CAFC has been contacted by several other Congressional Members who are working to introduce further legislation to fix problems that are not addressed in Rep. Turner’s amendments.  H.R. 1585 is now before the United States Senate (June 5, 2007: Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 189.), where CAFC will track its progress and do what it can to see it passed with the child custody amendment intact.

Much more needs to be done. We are asking everyone who enjoys the protection and freedoms they have — because of these men and women serving our nation — to donate as much as possible so that CAFC can continue to help these service men and women and their families.

California Alliance for Families & Children Official Web Site: www.cafcusa.org

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SPECIAL AMMENDMENT TO STORY:  Sent in by Michael Robinson of the California Alliance for Families and Children:

The SCRA provision was actually passed in HR 4986. not in HR 1585. I would also like to add that this new amendment to the SCRA regarding Stays would apply to a disabled vet who may still be hospitalized and a divorce proceeding was filed after the injury. It will help prevent a court from making a ruling. If they want to proceed after the initial 90 stay then they will have to appoint the service member an attorney free of charge if they don’t already have one.

The below is from: http://www.navyseals.com/victory-military-parents-servicemembers-civil-relief-act-protections-extended-family-courts .

"For those of you not familiar with HR 1585, this was the National Defense Appropriations Bill that President Bush used the pocket veto on because there was language in the bill that would have allowed the current Iraq Government to be sued for past bad acts by Saddam. I was immediately informed of this even prior to press on the issue, but was assured that Congress was going to fast track a revised bill to fix the problem and that the provision we were seeking for protecting military parents with custody orders was not in jeopardy.

"Sure enough, they did in fact fast track a new bill, HR 4986 and the bill was cleared for the White House on 1/22/08 and presented to the President on 1/24/08. I was contacted today by Congressional and White House staff informing me that the President will sign this bill.

"The language in HR 4986 for section 584 can be see below. While the language is not as strong as the California statute, where it all started in 2005, and other state statutes we pushed, the language does at least provide protection in all 50 states now.

The bill section reads:

"SEC. 584. PROTECTION OF CHILD CUSTODY ARRANGEMENTS FOR PARENTS WHO ARE MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES DEPLOYED IN SUPPORT OF A CONTINGENCY OPERATION.

(a) PROTECTION OF SERVICEMEMBERS AGAINST DEFAULT JUDGMENTS.—Section 201(a) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 521

(b) HR 4986 CPH is amended by inserting "including any child custody proceeding" after "proceeding."

(b) STAY OF PROCEEDINGS WHEN SERVICEMEMBER HAS NOTICE.—Section 202(a) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. App. 522(a)) is amended by inserting "including any child custody proceeding," after "civil action or proceeding."