HDFS 4052 Family Policy and Law: Final Exam Fall 2025

Written final exam with Dr. Plauche. Will be 10 of the questions. Either short answer or lists. Everything from Midterm to Final.

right to autonomy in activities related to marriage, procreation, abortion, contraception, family relationships, and the rearing and education of children

The Court has established certain fundamental rights as they pertain specifically to family life. What are these fundamental rights?

Loving v. Virginia, Obergefell v. Hodges, and Zablocki v. Redhail

Everyone has the right to marriage no matter the racial composition of their partnership, gender or sex of the couple, and economic status or debts of the individuals. The right to marriage cannot be restricted by prisons as well. What court cases protect the right to fundamental right to marriage?

Skinner v. Oklahoma

In the _________________ (1942) decision, the Court said that procreation is fundamental to the human race and cannot be violated. Based on the right to procreation as decided by the Court, a state cannot force sterilization of offenders of certain crimes.

Skinner v. Oklahoma, Griswold v. Connecticut, Eisenstadt v. Baird, Roe v. Wade, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

What court cases protected the right to procreation including abortion and contraception?

Moore v. City of East Cleveland

The right to family relationships and the childrearing and children’s education is also protected by the courts. ________________ (1977) protected the family’s right to decide who is within the bounds of the family and the decisions within the family are protected.

a family is a group of individuals with interacting personalities

What is Burgess’s definition of family?

families had intrafamily tort immunity, married couples had one legal identity, home and family were private and confidential, and childhood is a special time

What were the early legal assumptions about the family in American Society?

Describe and discuss briefly the early legal assumptions about the family in American Society. How did our changing views of family life, captured in the Burgess definition of the family, represent a shift from those early assumptions toward a "parting of the veil" on family life?

Early American legal assumptions about the family were that families had intrafamily tort immunity, married couples had one legal identity, home and family were private and confidential, and childhood special time. These legal assumptions reflected the cultural ideals of a nuclear family where the head of the household makes the decisions, and the government should not be involved in familial life. At this time, family members could not sue each other, men decided the family’s vote and legal issues, no one could intrude on the private discussions of the family, and parents will always do what is best for the child including determining discipline. When women gained the right to vote through the 19^th amendment in 1920, the cultural view of one legal identity and privacy of the family began to shift. At this time, women’s thoughts could finally be heard regardless of their husbands or guardians. With their voices came thinking of families as groups of individuals with interacting personalities, which is Burgess’s definition of family. Now, the Courts began to recognize that the rights do not only pertain to the family as one identity, but as each individual in the family has rights. This led to family members being able to sue others, governmental interjection into childrearing and education, and restrictions on home and family privacy and confidentiality. Though we still protect the right to privacy within a home, the government has a right to investigate reports of mistreatment or neglect to protect the rights of the individuals of the family. The break in privacy of the home can also be referred to as the “parting of the veil” on family life because no longer is it taboo or socially unacceptable to question what is occurring within the bounds of a family. Families are no longer an untouchable unit or lawless land where the head of the household has final say over the rights of the members. All individuals are given the same rights in the family no matter their familial role.

consent, solemnization, consanguinity, affinity, age requirements, and physical requirements

What are the five conditions or requirements for marriage currently in plan in most states?

• two are formal requirements and 3 ish substantive requirements for a marriage to be considered legal

  • formal: do not vary

  • substantive: vary with time religion, culture

    • general agreement: incest prohibition

    • validity contingent on a variety of factors

    • are the ones to be contested in courts to be constitutional or not

age; mental status

Both parties must freely and voluntarily consent to the contract of marriage. To consent freely and voluntarily, both parties must be competent and have the capacity to consent to marriage, which is where ________ and ___________ are considered.

• must understand the nature of the contract and its responsibilities

• know the intent

solemnization of marriage

The _________________ means that marriage is an important formal decision that requires licensure, a waiting period, a formal ceremony, and must be entered into the public record.

• must be by a court or an authorized individual

• impresses the seriousness of the act upon the couple

• gives public notice of the marriage

• permanent record of the marriage

• helps to collect vital statistics

• informal marriage lacks this: 28 states no longer allow

  • 13 have never including Louisiana

Consanguinity

__________________ refers to the widely accepted condition that the couple cannot be related by blood within certain degrees of kinship. Incestuous marriage is not recognized as a valid marriage to receive benefits, and the couple can be criminally prosecuted. Technically includes relationships of affinity.

persons related by affinity

Most states also prohibit marriages between ________________—relation by marriage including step-relationships—and adoption because it disrupts family harmony and the purpose adoption is supposed to serve.

the minimum age of consent changed across time and varies state-by-state

Age is also considered in the formal requirements of marriage since all states have an age requirement. The purpose of the age requirement is to protect minors, promote marital stability, and ensure children resulting from marriage have two competent, mature, and responsible caregivers. Why would it also be included in substantive requirements?

protect partners from unknown health hazards and it is expected that the marriage contract will result in children

The final substantive requirement is physical requirements including blood tests and physical capacity for consummation. Most states still allow a marriage to be annulled because it was never consummated. Though these requirements may look different, they still are considered in court cases and determine the validity of marriage. Though now optional, why were these requirements?

biological relationship, a potential parent-child relationship, cohabitation or a sense of shared residence, permanence and formal commitment, and psychological support and involvement

The Courts have declined to define family but have given us several indicia of the boundaries or characteristics of relationships likely to receive protected status. What are the characteristics of protected relationships?

Griswold v. Connecticut; right to privacy; Eisenstadt v. Baird; free speech clause, due process clause, and equal protection clause; parental or spousal consent; Carey v. Population Services International; Burwell v. Hobby Lobby; first time

Fill in the summary of the right to contraception as decided by the court.

The right to contraception started in 1965 with _________________, where the Supreme Court decided that the ____________ was a constitutional right even though it is not explicitly stated in the Constitution. The Supreme Court determined that the Connecticut law banning any contraception use for married couples was unconstitutional because married couples have a right to privacy to make decisions within their marriage like the right to decide how to parent children. In 1972, _______________ extended the right to privacy to use contraception to unmarried people because the Supreme Court determined that all rights extend to all individuals not just married people as cited in the [name the three clauses]. The decisions in the case In Re Gault of 1967 was cited in Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth (1976) decision that minors are extended the same due process rights of adult defendants to extend the right to contraception to minors declaring that requiring _____________________ to obtain contraception is unconstitutional. However, ______________________________ (1977) said that right to privacy for contraception applies to children, but states have greater authority to protect the conduct of children than adults. Finally, during ________________ in 2014, the Supreme Court extended the right to deny coverage of contraception for religious reasons to corporations, which was the ________ the Court has extended religious exemptions to businesses setting a dangerous precedent.

who must provide or pay for contraception and are some forms of contraception too similar to abortion

What is the current battle ground on contraception issues?

Both are closely tied to the right to privacy and some argue that some contraception acts after fertilization making it an abortion. Saying that the right to privacy does not extend to abortion threatens the foundation of the right to contraception.

How are contraceptive issues linked to the battle over abortion?

determined abortion did not fall under the right to privacy, there is no constitutional right to abortion, all previous rulings on the issue are null and void, and the federal government cannot mandate the right to an abortion nationally

How has the Dobbs decision changed the right to abortion in the US?

a total abortion ban with exceptions to save the life of the pregnant person or prevent serious physical harm to one or more of the pregnant person’s organs but doctors must protect both the life of the mother and the fetus

What is the current status of the right to an abortion in Louisiana? 

fault-based divorce

___________________, also known as traditional divorce and contested divorce, occurs when a spouse serves the other with divorce papers on the grounds of matrimonial offenses and a court must decide which spouse is at fault for the dissolution of the marriage. Matrimonial offenses include adultery, abandonment, incarceration, physical inability to procreate, and physical or emotional abuse/cruelty.

• could receive larger distribution of property and alimony to the innocent spouse

• spouses can contest and some of those defense include

  • approval of adultery

  • enticing someone to seduce their spouse

  • forgiving their conduct

  • both parties participate in the same conduct

  • provoking the other spouse’s actions

  • fabricating divorce

no-fault divorce

_____________ occurs when a spouse is able to apply for divorce papers without having to prove who is at fault. Spouses seek divorce due to irreconcilable differences, an unfixable broken marriage, or an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. The opposing spouse cannot object to the divorce, and if they try, that is considered an irreconcilable difference.

no-fault must live separately before filing paperwork and a spouse can contest a fault-based divorce

What is the difference between fault and no fault divorce other than the obvious one?

1970s

What decade were these the defining controversies and questions?

• What is the definition of family policy?

• How can a family impact perspective be prioritized in policy decisions?

• definitional

1980s

What decade were these the defining controversies and questions?

• partisan ownership

• Is family policy too controversial?

• Is family policy owned by the liberals or the conservatives?

• Without clear objectives, is it better to focus on single issues and single constituencies?

1990s

What decade were these the defining controversies and questions?

• Legitimacy

• Are families a legitimate focus of policy attention and public investments, or are families a private matter?

• emerged that families are a legitimate field of empirical and theoretical inquiry

2000s

What decade were these the defining controversies and questions?

• rationale

• why do we need family policy?

• What unique and value-added perspective can the concept of family bring to research, social policy, and the design and conduct of social programs?

2010s

What decade were these the defining controversies and questions?

• drew on research to provide evidence-based rationale for legitimate family policy as a serious subfield of social policy

• families make several contributions to achieving policy ends

• they are responsible for raising responsible children who become caring, committed contributors to a strong democracy and competent workers in the economy

• effective and efficient means for achieving policy and program goals

• families are a normative ideal for fostering political consensus and the finding of common good

2020s

What decade were these the defining controversies and questions?

• tipping point

• Was the pandemic a tipping point when policymakers were able to observe firsthand the benefits of investing in family policy?

• Has the ground shifted toward less resistance to and more demand for family policy in the future?

family right to privacy, the right to parental authority, parents acted in the best interests of their children at all times, children do not have the same rights and privileges of adults, children’s rights under parents rights, parents are the most informed and invested individual in the problems and characteristics of their child, parents had moral duty to make decisions with love and responsibility, and protecting parental rights protected children’s rights

What traditional views about the parent-child relationship supported the idea that children were best protected by protecting their parents?

termination of parental rights

The _____________________ is a court order that ends the legal relationship between a child and their parent permanently. Could either be voluntary or involuntary.

Voluntary termination

When a parent gives up their parental rights, the parent gives their consent for the revoking of their rights to do what is best for the child and surrenders their child to the state. ________________ is typically irrevocable; however, parental rights can be restored if it is found that fraud or deceit was involved within a certain time frame. Though termination of parental rights and adoption can be overturned, the courts usually believe that adoption is within the best interests of the child unless fraud can be proven

Involuntary termination

_________________ occurs when the courts terminate parental rights without their consent in cases where there is neglect, abuse, or abandonment when it is in the best interest of the child.

parens patriae

What is the paternalistic power for states to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of citizens who lack the ability to make decisions for themselves or act in their own best interests?

parents are thought to know their children best, have fundamental right to raise them directly, are more invested in their wellbeing than the government, and the government interfering is considered dangerous and disruptive.

Why do courts defer to parents in decisions regarding the rearing of their children?

in the best interest of their children, competent and responsible, make informed and tailored decisions to the individual needs of the child, understand child’s needs, and have the right to pass down cultural and familial values

What do the courts assume about a parents actions?

they are motivated to raise children effectively

What do courts assume about the motivations of parents?