Appellate court: No to grands’ rights
Published 1:24 am Saturday, October 31, 2015
An Alabama appeals court has struck down a law granting legal rights to grandparents who want to visit their grandchildren, The Associated Press reported.
The Court of Civil Appeals used an Autauga County case to rule that the Grandparents Visitation Act is unconstitutional because it violates the rights of parents to decide things for their children.
The law is an amended version of a previous law that was struck down as unconstitutional on similar grounds in 2011.
The law allows grandparents to go to court to seek visitation with grandchildren even if the parents don’t approve.
In the case before the appeals court, a grandmother went to court seeking visitation with two of her grandchildren despite objections of the children’s mother.
A lower court upheld the law, but the Civil Appeals judges disagreed.