On Wednesday, Associate Justice Sotomayor in Golan v. Saada, was joined by a unanimous Court, with a ruling that will, by effect, protect children that are the subject of international child custody disputes. The Supreme Court ruling gives Federal District Courts more flexibility in determining whether it is safe to return a child to their home country. The heart of the opinion , demonstrates Sotomayor’s legal prowess as a textualist jurist, opening with a citation from Abbott v. Abbott, “The interpretation of a treaty, like the interpretation of a statute, begins with its text.” At issue in Golan is two provisions of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Under Article 12 of the Hague Convention, the deciding authority, which within the United States would be a federal district court, is required to “order the return of the child.”
On the other hand, under Article 13(b), a US Federal District Court, “is not bound to order the return of the child… if the court finds that the party opposing return has established that return would expose the child to a ‘grave risk’ of physical or psychological harm.”
[…]
Excerpt Sourced From: thepostmillennial.com
