The Elian Gonzales case illustrates how our concept of the best interest of the child is subject to abuse with untold harm to the child in question. In this case, the best interest standard is being employed to keep Elian from his father. This is a common occurrence in Family Courts all across out nation. As Al Knight in the Denver Post describes the process:

One parent or custodian obtains the primary access to a young child and works the situation in such a way as to directly disadvantage another parent, usually the father. The manipulation can be subtle ( Don't you think you have a nicer room here? or more directly ( I wish your father cared about you enough to get a nicer place for you to stay.'')

Whether subtle or direct, however, the technique has a name. It's called parental alienation, the art of putting distance between a non-custodial parent and a child.

This act, which in a saner society would be classed as a crime, in fact is often rewarded in custody cases when the person who has done the alienating is given preference in parenting time precisely because judges find such arrangements to be in the best interests of the child.

Every state has passed statutes largely influenced by federal mandates embedded in various welfare reform packages and other legislation that define the best interest of the child, along with many other aspects of Family Law, most notably child support enforcement. This problem must therefore be addressed on a federal level.

As a constituent, I call upon you to sponsor legislation that would direct the states to re-define the best interest standard to state specifically that in divorce where neither parent has been found by jury trial to be unfit, then the presumption would be for shared parenting in which both parents would share equal time with the children of the relationship. For how such a bill would be worded, please see either http://ancpr.org/resolution.htm or http://www.kids-right.org/family_rights_act.htm.

Both of these documents present proposals that would vastly improve the lives of children affected by the separation and divorce of their parents.

Sincerely,