SLAPPing Parental Rights

Texas lawmakers are planning to discuss legislation to deal with Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP), meritless suits designed not to win but to financially punish opponents, which have been used by corporations and wealthy individuals to intimidate or silence public critics.

We may coin that phrase as Strategic Lawsuits Against Parental Participation to describe the continued assault against parents through the Grandparent Access Statute. The usual pattern is that these grandparents seek to force their will into the decisions of parents in regard to the rearing, education, or socialization of their children. This, of course, results in conflict as fit parents assert their responsibility and authority to raise their children. What many of these grandparents really want is custody of the grandchildren, but they can’t accomplish that through the Texas Family Code because these parents are not abusive or neglectful.

Judges in these cases often have a low view of parental rights and believe that grandparents should have the right to see their grandchildren and have possession of them regardless of what the parents believe. When I describe some of these cases, people don’t believe that these things could happen in Texas. They are wrong.

On August 25 the Texas Second Court of Appeals delivered a 34-page opinion that forced a Fort Worth judge to vacate rulings in his court that go back to 2006, in which he removed the daughter of a mother from her care and placed her with the grandparents. The “grandparents” were the parents of her former husband, who was not the biological or adoptive father of the child. So the “grandparents” did not have standing to file these suits because they were not related to the child by blood or marriage. Yet, on the basis of testimony from a social worker who said that the daughter should be placed with the “grandparents” till the mother could learn to “share her with others who loved her,” the judge took the daughter away from her mother for almost four years.

So while we need to pass the Texas Parental Rights Restoration Act in the next legislative session to give protection to fit parents from this kind of legal harassment, we also need to SLAPP judges like this right out of office. The Fort Worth judge in question here is not up for reelection this year, but we will be watching him closely and looking for someone to oppose him in the next election.

In Collin County two years ago THSC PAC endorsed a judicial candidate against such a judge, which was unheard of. The challenger, Suzanne Wooten, whom we supported, was victorious with over 57% of the vote. Unfortunately, the district attorney in Collin County didn’t like the fact that his friend on the court had been defeated. According to news reports the DA has launched what has become a two-year investigation through five or more grand juries in an attempt to force the new judge to “resign.”

This type of behavior leads me to conclude that we all need to be more informed and involved in our communities to elect and “unelect” the right people.

The Governor's Race Update

The Texas Governor’s race continues to heat up, and the latest Rasmussen poll shows Rick Perry with a 9 percentage point lead. Texas’ position ahead other states despite the economic downturn is still an issue that Governor Perry touts as the result of his leadership and the Republican leaders of the Texas legislature.

Last week Democratic nominee Bill White gave his opponents another opening when he refused to take possible tax increases to fund transportation needs off the table. The head of the Texas Association of Businesses said that White’s ideas were “… the very same anti-business, anti-jobs ideas that have left California in absolute shambles. Bill White’s transportation funding scheme would cost jobs and topple the best business climate in the nation.”

Governor Perry has been a stalwart supporter of home schooling and home schoolers for many years. While his opponent claims to support home schoolers, he has laid out a plan to deal with the high school dropout problem by tracking students who leave public schools, including those who do so to homeschool.

Join me tonight at 7:30 p.m. for an exclusive conference call with Governor Rick Perry to discuss his upcoming election and issues of importance to the home school community. If you have questions you’d like to submit, please send by e-mail to staff@thsc.org by 5 p.m. today.

Participant Phone: 877-229-8493
ID CODE: 15659#

The Real Conservative in HD 45

Democratic State Representative Patrick Rose (HD 45) became the object of many Texas parents’ ire last year when he deceived the Texas House, getting them to amend SB 1440 with a radical piece of legislation that would have dramatically undercut parental rights and given expansive new powers to CPS (Child Protective Services) to remove children from their parents’ home. After a three-week campaign of outrage against this attempt led by THSC, Governor Perry vetoed SB 1440.

Republican nominee Jason Isaac is challenging Rose and has secured the endorsement of the Libertarian nominee, who has withdrawn from the race and endorsed Isaac. The Libertarian candidate has gained 4% or more of the vote in recent years, and his support of Isaac could be a problem for Rose.

Now Isaac has released a report exposing Rose for paying for personal auto expenses for the last five years from his campaign account to the tune of over $35,000. While Rose likes to characterize himself as a conservative Democrat, he seems to have more in common with the corrupt Democrats in Washington, D.C. I encourage folks in the Central Texas area to work for Isaac’s campaign and support him financially!

Ongoing Battle to Restore Parental Rights in Texas

Two weeks ago I had a great time at the THSC State Convention and Family Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. I talked with a couple of folks at the conference who reminded me that THSC had intervened on their behalf in situations with government officials who threatened their right to home school. Both of them told me, “I never thought something like that would happen to me.” There are hundreds of stories of home schooling parents in Texas whose parental rights are challenged and they all thought the same thing.

In the ongoing battle to restore parental rights in Texas, we have intervened on behalf of a member of our association in a grandparent access case. This father never thought he would be in this situation either. However, after his wife’s death her parents sued him under the grandparent access statute, and under “temporary” orders from a district court his daughter was placed with the grandparents; he has not seen her in over two years.

In an affidavit, one of the former co-petitioners in the case revealed that the attorneys for the grandparents told them that the case was very weak but they had a chance to win if they were willing to “outspend the father.” They explained that in cases where one side had more money than the other the facts were irrelevant as a practical matter. Their strategy was to force the father to exhaust his resources and thus allow the grandparents to gain permanent custody of their granddaughter.

THSC has retained attorneys to represent this father in what could be a very expensive fight to sustain his parental rights. One reason we have done so is that case law needs to be established in these kinds of cases in which many judges allow non-parents to have the same rights and standing as parents - this must not be allowed to stand. We have been told that the cost for this case could be over $100,000 and we will need help from the home school community to meet this need. Please pray for this father and his daughter and for all of those involved in this case that justice would be done quickly.

War Against the States Escalates

As summer draws to a close and the political season begins to heat up, the federal government’s war against certain states escalates. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June took away state’s right to approve permits for Texas refineries. The Obama administration has refused to drop its plans for a “moratorium” on deep water drilling in spite of the fact that Gulf state congressional leaders from both parties say that will damage the region more than the BP oil spill.

Now Congress is on the verge of passing a multi-billion-dollar bill for public employees that includes billions for education. However, Texas is singled out for special treatment. In an amendment offered by Texas Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Texas is the only state required to have the governor assure certain state levels of spending in order to receive the federal money. Governor Perry and other Texas officials have threatened to sue the Feds over the issue.

Arizona has been sued by the Obama administration over its attempt to protect its citizens from illegal immigrants streaming across the southern border. Interestingly Massachusetts and five other states have passed laws seeking to overturn the use of the Electoral College in presidential elections. Obama has not chosen to sue those states over this violation of federal law. I guess it’s only conservative states that have to worry about having war declared on them by the federal government.