Mother Taking Her Case to United States Supreme Court

In our nation’s family courts, what happens when a parent in good faith presents evidence that the other parent has abused their child?

Ask Linda Marie Sacks, a mother in Florida who lost contact with her children for trying to protect them.

She’s been allowed to see her two daughters for only 79 hours in three years and ten months. With no case plan or reunification plan provided by the family court, this is the longest family law referral in the history of the Daytona Beach supervised visitation center.

A 2008 press release from the Leadership Council says, “According to a conservative estimate by experts at the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence (LC), more than 58,000 children a year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States. This is over twice the yearly rate of new cases of childhood cancer. “

On May 6, 2011, the Friday before Mother’s Day, Ms. Sacks will file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. in her continuing effort to be re-united with her children. After years of hearings in the Florida state courts, this mother will ask our highest court to consider her obligation to protect her children and her right to unsupervised contact with them.

The U.S. Supreme Court is more likely to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari when multiple Amicus Briefs are filed along with the petition. This is an opportunity for our highest court to establish the parental right to protect children from intrafamilial abuse.

If your organization would like to help write and/or help gather Amicus Briefs for this case, it would be greatly appreciated.

The questions to be presented are:

1. If a parent makes a good faith allegation of abuse, with documented evidence,
   in an effort to protect his or her children, should that parent be deprived of physical
   custody of those children, or have contact with those children supervised indefinitely without a case plan or reunification plan provided by the trial court?
2.  Does a state court violate the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments when it
   deprives a parent of physical custody and limits that parent’s contact to supervised
   visitation with children, for taking the reasonable action based upon a belief,
   supported by facts that children need protection from abuse?
3.  Does a state court’s custody decision that deprives a parent of access to his or her
   children  indefinitely, unless supervised, without a finding of unfitness by clear and
   convincing  evidence, which effectively terminates parental rights,
   violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments?

If you would like to receive copies of any/all related documents, contact:

Linda Marie Sacks
386-453-3017
lindamariesacks@aol.com

Press please contact:

Kathleen Russell
Executive Director
Center for Judicial Excellence
495 Miller Avenue, Suite 304
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Main 415.388.9600 Fax 415.388.4610