LEHMAN, Marjorie, on behalf of her children, William Lehman,
Mark Lehman, Frank Lehman
v.
LYCOMING COUNTY CHILDREN'S SERVICES AGENCY, Marjorie Lehman
and her children on whose behalf this action was
filed, Appellants.
No. 79-2466.
United States Court of Appeals,
Third Circuit.
Argued March 27, 1980 before ROSENN, GARTH and SLOVITER,
Circuit Judges.
Reargued In Banc Nov. 17, 1980.
Decided March 31, 1981.
As Amended April 6, 7 and 13, 1981.
Martin Guggenheim (Argued), New York City, Warren R. Baldys, Jr., Baldys & Baldys, Williamsport, Pa., Thomas Harvey, American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellants.
Charles F. Greevy, III, Argued, Greevy, Greevy & Greevy, Williamsport, Pa., for appellee.
Before SEITZ, Chief Judge, and ALDISERT, ADAMS, GIBBONS, ROSENN, HUNTER, WEIS, GARTH, HIGGINBOTHAM and SLOVITER, Circuit Judges.
OPINION ANNOUNCING THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT
GARTH, Circuit Judge.
This case requires us to determine whether a petition for a writ of habeas corpus is available for a federal constitutional challenge to Pennsylvania's statutory scheme for involuntarily terminating a parent's rights in her children. We hold that habeas corpus is not appropriate for the constitutional challenge here, and thus we affirm the district court's dismissal of Ms. Lehman's petition.
I.
The facts giving rise to the instant petition are detailed in full in In re William L.,
In June, 1971, appellant Marjorie Lehman, then age 39, was living with her three sons who are the subject of this proceeding: Frank, then age 7, William, then age 5, and Mark, then age 1. At that time she was pregnant with her youngest daughter Tracie. Tracie has lived with her mother since her birth. Ms. Lehman's eldest child, Carol, has lived with Ms. Lehman's parents for many years, and Ms. Lehman does not seek her return. In June, 1971, when pregnant with Tracie, Ms. Lehman voluntarily surrendered custody of her three sons to the Lycoming County Children's Services Agency (the Agency). Ms. Lehman had come to the attention of the Agency sometime earlier as a result of the deplorable living conditions that obtained in her apartment. Ms. Lehman and the caseworker agreed that the home was unfit for children.
After Tracie's birth, the Agency helped Ms. Lehman find a new apartment. Ms. Lehman vacillated between seeking an apartment large enough to accommodate only herself and Tracie, and one large enough for the three boys as well. She ultimately selected one suitable only for Tracie and herself. The boys remained in foster care. In November, 1974, more than three years after she had surrendered custody of her sons, Ms. Lehman requested that the boys be returned to her. At the time, she was still in the apartment suitable only for Tracie and herself. The Agency, concluding that Ms. Lehman could not provide her sons with necessary support and supervision, declined to return them. The Agency then filed a petition in the Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming County under section 311(2) of the Pennsylvania Adoption Act of 1970,1 seeking to terminate Ms. Lehman's parental rights in the three boys, so that they could be placed for adoption without Ms. Lehman's consent.
Most of the evidence at the hearing on this petition consisted of the testimony of nutrition aides and caseworkers from the Agency who had visited with Ms. Lehman. After Tracie's birth, nutrition aides began regular visits to Ms. Lehman's home to help her maintain the household and raise her infant daughter. Ms. Lehman came to rely heavily on these aides to perform even the simplest tasks of everyday life. She made little or no progress in learning to handle problems without assistance. A series of incidents illustrates the depth of Ms. Lehman's incapacity. On one occasion, Tracie was sent home from school because she had lice. The nutrition aide could not make Ms. Lehman understand the need to rid Tracie of the lice or how to perform the simple procedure to achieve this result. Ultimately, as Tracie became upset about missing school, the aide herself was forced to perform the treatments.
On several occasions, Ms. Lehman has had her heat and electricity terminated for her failure to pay the bills. Once, Ms. Lehman sought emergency financial assistance to pay bills for rent, gas, water and electricity that she believed were due. On inquiry, the aide discovered that Ms. Lehman had already paid all of these bills. There was also other evidence of Ms. Lehman's incapacity to conduct her financial affairs responsibly. She told the aides on several occasions of making payment for items, such as toys, that were never delivered. She also told them of turning over her social security checks, her sole source of income, to creditors who would cash the checks, deduct amounts allegedly owed, and return to Ms. Lehman the difference.
As a result of Ms. Lehman's incapacities and the long period almost a decade since her sons have lived with her, relations between Ms. Lehman and the boys have deteriorated. The boys visited their mother in her apartment twice a month during late 1975 and early 1976 under a court ordered visitation plan. Aides present during these visits described them as "free-for-alls" in which Ms. Lehman would chase, in succession, each of the children about the apartment seeking to establish control. The two older boys appeared to do no more than tolerate their mother. The youngest boy, who has lived with a foster family since his first birthday, spent these visits watching television. Each of the boys testified in chambers that he did not want to live with his mother. The oldest boy admitted that he would not obey his mother and that she could not control him.
Other evidence at the hearing focused on Ms. Lehman's intellectual and social skills. A psychologist who administered a series of tests reported that Ms. Lehman has a mental age of six years, ten months, and that her social skills and ability to function independently were those of a twelve year old. The psychologist opined that Ms. Lehman lacked the social and intellectual maturity necessary to raise children.
Based on this testimony, the Court of Common Pleas found the appellant irremediably "incapable of providing minimal care, control and supervision for the three children." In re William Lehman, Nos. 2986-88, slip op. at 4 (C.P. Lycoming Co., June 3, 1976). The court rejected Ms. Lehman's argument that section 311 of the Pennsylvania Adoption Act was unconstitutionally vague. Accordingly, the Common Pleas Court terminated Ms. Lehman's parental rights in her three sons, making them eligible for adoption. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the adoption statute was neither unconstitutionally vague nor violative of substantive due process and then found that the lower court's termination of Ms. Lehman's parental rights was supported by competent evidence,2 In re William L.,
Ms. Lehman's petition for a writ of certiorari was denied,
The district court dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction, Lehman v. Lycoming County Children's Services Agency, No. 79-65 (M.D.Pa. Sept. 4, 1979), relying substantially on the holding of the First Circuit in Sylvander v. New England Home for Little Wanderers,
On July 23, 1980 a divided panel of this court reversed the district court. It held that "federal habeas corpus jurisdiction may be invoked to challenge the constitutionality of a state statute by which the state has taken custody of children and has terminated without consent the rights of a natural parent to them." Lehman v. Lycoming County Children's Services Agency, No. 79-2466, slip op. at 24, (3d Cir. July 23, 1980), vacated and rehearing en banc granted (August 15, 1980). Thereafter rehearing before the court en banc was ordered.
II.
A habeas corpus action differs from other constitutional challenges in one exceedingly important respect. All other litigational claims, constitutional and non-constitutional, are subject to the doctrine of res judicata. That principle precludes a litigant who has fully and freely pressed a claim or defense in one court from obtaining a second adjudication of that claim or defense.4
Society, and hence, the law has a critical interest in finality, which is the basis for the doctrine of res judicata. In normal litigation, our jurisprudence dictates that this degree of finality has been reached after consideration by a court of original jurisdiction and a court of review. Thus, the doctrine of res judicata bars a cause of action that had earlier been determined in court, even if that determination was substantively in error. Habeas corpus, because it embodies considerations of personal liberty, is the major exception to this doctrine.
The writ of habeas corpus recognizes however, that this interest in finality cannot transcend each and every other societal interest. It represents our society's judgment that avoiding wrongful incarceration and unlawful restrictions on liberty outweighs the otherwise compelling interest in finality of litigation. Because this interest in personal liberty is one of our most highly valued constitutional rights, those who are in "custody" pursuant to a judgment of a court are, in almost all cases,5 permitted to raise their federal claims in federal court, even those claims had once before been adjudicated. As Justice Brennan wrote for the Supreme Court majority in Fay v. Noia,
"conventional notions of finality in criminal litigation cannot be permitted to defeat the manifest federal policy that federal constitutional rights of personal liberty shall not be denied without the fullest opportunity for plenary federal judicial review."
Id. at 424,
While the ability to avoid res judicata is an extraordinary characteristic of habeas when the relitigation takes place within the same judicial system that is, when a state court entertains the writ on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a court of that same state the writ assumes even more profound implications when its operation cuts across the federal and state judicial systems. In this latter context, the writ empowers a single federal district judge to overrule determinations of federal issues which have been adjudicated by the highest court of a state. Sumner v. Mata, -- U.S. --,
The awesome power of the writ to avoid res judicata, and its implications for our federalism, demand that its use be confined to its proper role: the preservation of individual liberty and the relief from unlawful custody. This principle has been expressed by the Supreme Court in Hensley v. Municipal Court,
The custody requirement of the habeas corpus statute is designed to preserve the writ of habeas corpus as a remedy for severe restraints on individual liberty. Since habeas corpus is an extraordinary remedy whose operation is to a large extent uninhibited by traditional rules of finality and federalism, its use has been limited to cases of special urgency, leaving more conventional remedies for cases in which the restraints on liberty are neither severe nor immediate.
Id. at 351,
Other commentators have expressed similar sentiments:
The historic custody requirement, although rooted in the procedural nature of the writ, took on a substantive character as habeas corpus came to be seen as an extraordinary remedy for the extraordinary restraints of custodial situations. The modern jurisdictional requirement (of custody) reflects this conception. Federal supervision of state judicial processes by means of the writ departs from traditional notions of deference owed state administration of federal law; problems of federalism aside, ordinary concepts of finality in the judicial process are displaced by the continuing availability of habeas for review of restrictions imposed by the judgments of federal courts. Therefore the restraints which have been thought appropriate for review in habeas proceedings are those which impinge with especial harshness on personal liberty those severe enough to warrant relitigation.
Developments in the Law Federal Habeas Corpus, 83 Harv.L.Rev. 1038, 1073 (1970) (emphasis added). The need to confine habeas to its proper sphere has become even more important as the scope of constitutional errors within its reach has expanded dramatically. See id. at 1041.
In deciding whether habeas corpus lies to challenge a termination of parental rights, we must determine, then, whether such a case presents the same, strong claim for overriding the interest in finality as inheres in the plea of a prisoner that he has been incarcerated in violation of the Constitution of the United States. We think the answer is clear: it may not, and for much the same reasons as those expressed in Sylvander v. New England Home for Little Wanderers,
A.
The federal habeas corpus statute for state prisoners, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, establishes custody as the prime requisite for relief. The statute provides in relevant part:
(a) The Supreme Court, a Justice thereof, a circuit judge, or a district court shall entertain an application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court only on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.
(Emphasis added).
While the Supreme Court has held that persons other than incarcerated prisoners may be in custody and hence has extended relief under the writ of habeas corpus to them, see Hensley v. Municipal Court,
In Hensley v. Municipal Court, supra, the habeas petitioner had been released on his own recognizance after his state conviction and sentencing, but prior to the commencement of his incarceration. In holding that the petitioner was in custody, the first factor that the Court looked to was that he was "subject to restraints 'not shared by the public generally.' " Id. at 351,7
Carafas v. LaVallee,
Jones v. Cunningham, supra, involved a petitioner who was on parole after serving part of a state prison term. The Court ruled that he was "in custody" because "the custody and control of the Parole Board involve significant restraints on petitioner's liberty which are in addition to those imposed by the State upon the public generally." Id. at 242,
Relating these principles to the Lehman family situation, it is immediately apparent that unlike Hensley, Carafas, and Jones, the three boys here suffer no restraints that can be equated to the restraints which permitted habeas corpus relief in those cases. If indeed a characteristic of habeas custody is that the restraint suffered is "not shared by the public generally," Hensley at 351,
B.
Sylvander v. New England Home for Little Wanderers, supra, is the only case that has analyzed whether the termination of parental rights meant that the children were "in custody" for habeas corpus purposes.8 The facts of Sylvander, are remarkably similar to those of this case. Gail Sylvander relinquished custody of her son, Michael, to the New England Home for Little Wanderers, a state licensed, albeit privately run institution.9 After Mrs. Sylvander rescinded her permission granting the Home the right to put her son up for adoption, that institution petitioned the Massachusetts Probate Court for authority to dispense with the mother's consent to the child's adoption. That court found that it was in the best interests of the child to be placed with prospective adoptive parents. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed the order of the probate court and rejected Sylvander's argument that the statute's standards were unconstitutional.
Sylvander did not take an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, nor did she file a petition for certiorari. Instead she filed a petition for habeas corpus in the district court for the District of Massachusetts, joining with it a complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court dismissed her case, and the First Circuit affirmed.
After concluding that res judicata barred the § 1983 action, the First Circuit then held that there was no custody for habeas corpus purposes. It pointed out that the Supreme Court "had never acknowledged that habeas corpus is an appropriate remedy for litigating federal constitutional claims arising from child custody disputes." Id. at 1110-1111. The First Circuit wrote:
It is of course true that, although the wording of the federal habeas statute is tailored to fit state criminal proceedings, the habeas remedy has been made available in other contexts. What is not clear is that this case presents yet another situation to which that remedy should be extended. Here, the custody that the habeas petition seeks to challenge is a state's assignment of the responsibility for the upbringing of a child to one person or another, in that child's "best interests." Michael is not a detainee or one undergoing some form of state-imposed restraint or disability, but rather is living with persons who have taken interim parental responsibility for him at the request of a private institution after a judicial determination that he may be adopted without parental consent. This is not the kind of custody that has traditionally prompted federal courts to assert their jurisdiction in the face of prior state adjudication. It cannot meaningfully be said that the person in custody Michael is being held against his will. The "rights" Ms. Sylvander now asserts on Michael's behalf are chiefly her own her rights as a mother not to be deprived of her child. Only speculatively are they the rights of the person in "custody." Indeed, several years of state court litigation resulted in the determination that the Home, a charitable institution established to promote the welfare of children, is correct in arguing that Michael's best interests lie in his being adopted. Thus, if this court were to recognize the availability of federal habeas in child custody cases, the proper party to seek the Great Writ on Michael's behalf in this case might as well be the Home as Ms. Sylvander.
Id. at 1111.9a
The court concluded that:
the question is who should bring Michael up. We do not think that Michael's mother may avail herself of federal habeas corpus to litigate her right to do so.
Id. at 1113.
Similarly in this case, the Lehman boys are not "detainee(s)" nor are they "undergoing some form of restraint or disability." Id. at 1111. "It cannot meaningfully be said that the" Lehman boys are "being held against (their) will." Id. at 1111. Just as Ms. Sylvander essentially was asserting her own rights in her child, the rights Ms. Lehman asserts on behalf of her children are chiefly her own her rights as a parent not to be deprived of her children. The "custody" of a foster or adoptive parent over a child is simply not the type of custody that may be challenged through federal habeas.
Ms. Lehman attempts to distinguish the facts of the present case, involving the power of the state to extinguish the rights of a natural mother in her children, from the typical private custody dispute among parents. Yet such a distinction, in terms of the availability of habeas, cannot be sustained.10 In both instances a litigant uses the state's judicial machinery to establish the litigant's right to raise the child and to invalidate some other party's right to do so. Thus, the status of the child is the same whether determined in a "typical dispute between parents" or in a state parental right termination proceeding. If there is "custody" within the meaning of the habeas statute in the one instance, there must necessarily be "custody" in the other, because neither situation can be distinguished from the other in terms of the "extraordinary restraints," 83 Harv.L.Rev. at 1073, that must be present to satisfy the custody requirement. In both instances, the child's status at the completion of the action is the product of a state judicial decree.11
C.
We recognize that outside the context of federal habeas which is extended to persons in custody pursuant to the judgment of a state court, habeas has seen a considerably expanded usage. Ms. Lehman, for instance, refers to the discussion in Jones v. Cunningham,
Federal habeas when applied to persons under state control is a procedure of unique potency within federal-state framework, having far different and more far-reaching consequences than a state's utilization of habeas within its own system. State utilization of habeas to test the legal custody of a child is part of the fabric of its reserved jurisdiction over child custody matters. If a habeas remedy were not provided, some other procedure would be needed to effectuate the state's substantive interest in these relationships. It is purely a matter of procedural detail whether the remedy is called "habeas" or something else.
Thus, when we confine our review of the authorities only to those cases in which federal habeas has been extended to individuals in state custody, it is clear that none of the cases relied upon by Ms. Lehman for a broad reading of the term "custody" would find "custody" in the situation presented here, and thus would not authorize the use of the writ in the present case.
D.
Nor do policy considerations favor the availability of federal habeas in cases of this type. The child custody context is one where the interest in finality is especially weighty. It is widely recognized that children require secure, stable, long term and continuous relationships with their parents or the persons filling the role of parent. There is little that can be as detrimental to a child's sound development as prolonged uncertainty over whom he is to regard as his parents. And yet prolonged uncertainty in family relations must be the inevitable outcome of allowing the relitigation in federal court through habeas, of federal constitutional issues that were once fully adjudicated in state court. As the First Circuit wrote in Sylvander, "(i)t is by no means clear that the welfare of children and families would be promoted by creating a right to litigate in two sets of courts instead of one, thus extending the potential duration of litigation in this area."
We must also recognize that the child (whose liberty interests we must presume to be implicated in order to find a basis for the extension of habeas, see note 6 supra ) is little more than a pawn in the battle that engulfs him. Unlike the prisoner, who can control and direct the collateral attacks on his confinement, the child cannot call a halt to custody litigation whenever he sees fit. See Sylvander,
Nothing we have discussed here, however, should be read as a suggestion that the great writ may never be available on behalf of a child. We have indicated earlier that this case does not involve incarceration or restrictions or restraints affecting the Lehman boys' liberty any of which conditions might well be sufficient for habeas to lie. "Were (the Lehman boys) incarcerated in a state home, or were there other issues making this truly a struggle for liberty by one imprisoned under the aegis of the state," id. at 1113 (emphasis added), the writ might well be available. We hold only that parental rights termination suits, and other similar determinations of child custody, do not without more, provide a predicate for the use of federal habeas corpus.
III.
Ms. Lehman argues that she should be afforded habeas corpus review, otherwise a federal court will never hear the merits of her claim. Such an argument assumes that there is an inherent right to a litigant to have a federal court consider his federal claims. No such right exists. See Allen v. McCurry, -- U.S. --,
The simplest and most direct route was Ms. Lehman's right to appeal to the United States Supreme Court from the adverse judgment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. By this means, Ms. Lehman could have immediately, and as a matter of right, obtained a decision from our highest court. She chose not to file an appeal, but, rather, simply petitioned for a writ of certiorari. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1257(2) (1976), a party who presents a federal constitutional challenge to a state statute (here, the Pennsylvania Adoption Act), and loses in state court, has the right to appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The Court's appellate jurisdiction, of course, is nondiscretionary: the Court must determine cases falling within this jurisdiction on the merits, even though it need not give such cases plenary consideration. Hicks v. Miranda,
The second route to a federal resolution of the federal constitutional challenge is available by the litigant reserving the federal claims during the state court litigation, and then bringing a subsequent challenge to the state statutory scheme in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1976). Such an approach is possible due to the limited res judicata effect accorded state court judgments in subsequent suits under § 1983, under the rule in this Circuit of New Jersey Educational Ass'n v. Burke,
Normally, res judicata bars the assertion of claims that were or could have been litigated in an earlier suit. In Burke, this court held that, in a later § 1983 suit, res judicata would apply only to federal claims that actually were litigated, rather than to those that could have been litigated, in the earlier state court suit. We said that "a state court judgment forecloses a § 1983 litigant from raising grievances in federal court only if such claims have been pressed before, and decided by, a state tribunal."
Ms. Lehman, however, takes issue with the suggestion that § 1983 is an appropriate vehicle for a constitutional challenge in this custody setting. She objects, noting that such a procedure precludes state courts from addressing federal challenges to state statutes and procedures. She also points out that a § 1983 challenge would require duplicate litigation.
To Ms. Lehman's first objection, we note only that the interest in presenting federal constitutional challenges to state courts in advance of consideration in federal court is not an interest that applies in all types of cases; it is, rather, limited to constitutional challenges to custody within the meaning of habeas. A routine § 1983 action, such as a constitutional attack on a state Medicaid program, or a state statute providing for pre- or post-judgment garnishment, of course need not first be presented to the state courts. As long as custody within the meaning of habeas is not implicated, as it is not in this case, the exhaustion requirement has no place. The Supreme Court itself has entertained constitutional challenges to state custody procedures under § 1983, without any indication that the failure to give the state courts an opportunity to consider the federal constitutional questions was a bar to federal jurisdiction. See Smith v. Organization of Foster Families for Equality & Reform,
To Ms. Lehman's second objection, that a § 1983 challenge requires duplicate litigation, we observe that we have only urged that if a federal forum is desired, § 1983 is an appropriate means of gaining entry. We have by no means suggested that litigants in Ms. Lehman's position ought to withhold their constitutional claims from the state courts and bring them in federal court later under § 1983. We believe that the state court is the appropriate forum for resolution of all aspects of these disputes, including the federal constitutional claims, although a litigant is not obligated to prosecute such constitutional claims in state court. Burke, as we have stated, gives a litigant such as Ms. Lehman a choice of fora for the determination of the federal challenge: she can raise federal constitutional issues in the state court, in which case she will be barred by res judicata from raising them in federal court, or she can reserve them in the state proceeding, and assert them in federal court under § 1983.12 This scheme does not, however, give the litigant a right to have the claim determined both in state and federal court a right that is available under habeas corpus, but unwarranted in this context.
IV.
We hold that custody disputes of the nature addressed here and which essentially involve no more than the question of who shall raise a child to maturity, do not implicate the federal interest in personal liberty sufficiently to warrant the extension of federal habeas corpus. Accordingly the order of the district court which dismissed Ms. Lehman's petition for a writ of habeas corpus will be affirmed. Each party will bear its own costs.
ALDISERT, JAMES HUNTER, III and WEIS, Circuit Judges, join in this opinion in all respects and also join in the concurring opinion of ADAMS, Circuit Judge.
ADAMS, Circuit Judge, concurring, with whom ALDISERT, JAMES HUNTER, III and WEIS, Circuit Judges, join.
The family relationship, whose origin is entirely independent of the state and whose rights are older than the Constitution itself, has been an unending source of sensitive legal problems. The present appeal compounds the delicate nature of the parent-child relationship with the intricacies of federal-state comity. Specifically before us is the question whether a federal court has jurisdiction to entertain an action based solely on the habeas corpus statutes, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 and 2254, brought on behalf of children by a parent claiming that the children are unconstitutionally confined. The application seeks the return of the children although the children have expressed a wish not to return1 on the ground that parental rights were terminated pursuant to a state statute which allegedly violated the federal Constitution.
I.
No federal court has squarely held that it has jurisdiction over an action bottomed uniquely on habeas corpus in this type case.2 Nonetheless, it is admittedly arguable that the Lehman children technically fall within the literal language of the habeas statute. That is, in the words of the statute, they are conceivably "in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court in violation of the Constitution," and "the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a) and (b). However, attempts to ascertain the meaning of custody for purposes of the Great Writ from the bare statutory language have, in the past, proven of little avail. As conceived by the Supreme Court, the writ "is not now and never has been a static, narrow, formalistic remedy." Jones v. Cunningham,
It is true that certain early English common law cases considered habeas "a proper mode" to be utilized by parents to regain custody of children. But such an arrangement establishes no more than that one avenue of relief available at English common law was called habeas, whereas today such an approach has substantially been supplanted by statutory proceedings.4 Moreover, a reliance on the common law proves too much for Mrs. Lehman's purposes. Indeed, Mrs. Lehman herself concedes that federal habeas jurisdiction should be limited, and suggests that courts erect a distinction between domestic relations disputes5 and child custody or termination proceedings involving constitutional questions. Mrs. Lehman insists that unlike the private dispute in the ordinary domestic relations controversy which awards custody to a successful parent or relative, thus leaving the child within the family unit, in the present case it is the state which has permanently upset a family, leaving some of the children state wards. The English common law precedents,6 however, involve precisely the intrafamily or private party disputes which Mrs. Lehman acknowledges should not fall within federal habeas jurisdiction.
In America, the history of the jurisdiction of the federal courts to issue the writ of habeas corpus to persons alleging a custody in violation of federal law is one of carefully controlled statutory expansion. Originally, section 147 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 defined the substantive scope of the federal habeas power.8 Initially, only challenges to the jurisdictional competency of federal courts9 or to executive detentions without proper legal process10 were cognizable on habeas. Most significant for the present situation was the proviso precluding federal court scrutiny of state imprisonments. The statute declared "that writs of habeas corpus shall in no case extend to prisoners in jail, unless where they are in custody under or by color of the authority of the United States, or are committed for trial before some court of the same, or are necessary to be brought into court to testify." 1 Stat. 81-82 (1789).11 While this limitation on federal habeas power was often merely implicit in the early cases, in Ex parte Dorr the Supreme Court made explicit that federal courts unqualifiedly lacked the power to issue a habeas corpus writ to any person in custody under a sentence or execution, whether civil or criminal, of a state court.
Our understanding of federal habeas jurisdiction is further informed by Chief Justice Marshall's explication in the landmark case of Ex parte Bollman,
Although a series of legislative amendments dealing with the usages of the Great Writ followed the enactment of the Judiciary Act of 1789,19 Congress in the course of passing such legislation in no way indicated a desire to embrace child custody concerns within the statutory scheme. The legislative history to the predecessor statute of 28 U.S.C. § 2254, the Judiciary Act of February 5, 1867, quite significantly fails to mention challenges to termination of parental rights as among the intended uses of habeas. Passed in the wake of the Civil War, when Congress was anticipating resistance to its Reconstruction measures, the 1867 Act was proposed "to enable the courts of the United States to enforce the freedom of the wives and children of soldiers of the United States and also to enforce the liberty of all persons under the operation of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery."20 At that time, Congress was preeminently concerned with providing a federal forum for the constitutional claims of state prisoners and with establishing the principle that military authorities have no jurisdiction over private citizens.21
Even today, the habeas statute speaks in terms of "the rights of the prisoner,"22 thus continuing to reflect the specific thrust of the Judiciary Act of 1867. Of course, the original congressional purpose underlying the 1867 Act is not dispositive of the question presently confronting the Court; construction of the statutory phrase of "in custody" has evolved over time to embrace persons on parole,23 persons unconditionally released from prison after filing a habeas petition,24 persons released on their own recognizance,25 and persons on unattached, inactive army reserve duty.26 Nevertheless, the stamp of the criminal sanction pervades the overwhelming majority of habeas petitions, thus indicating the judicial and social perception of the scope of the Great Writ.
Insofar as the use of habeas in a case such as the one at hand is not historically foreordained or legislatively mandated, it is appropriate to inquire whether existing proceedings circumscribing the termination of parental rights are constitutionally adequate, or whether children such as the Lehman children have an interest that merits the added safeguard afforded by the habeas writ.27 No empirical data has been brought to our attention which would demonstrate that family unity is being seriously jeopardized as a result of state statutes or procedures which do not deal fairly and equitably with such matters. In this very case a review of the record in the state proceedings shows no cavalier disregard of parental rights on the part of the governmental agency or the state courts. All this is in sharp contrast with the situation that prevailed when the habeas statute was last given an expanded construction. At the time of Fay v. Noia,
Under the circumstances, then, it would appear to be both unwise and impolitic for the federal courts to uncover a whole new font of jurisdiction at this time. Inasmuch as the Constitution specifically provides that jurisdiction for the lower federal courts should be conferred by the Congress, it would seem that a more prudent approach would be to permit Congress to determine whether § 2254 should be amended so as to empower the federal courts to enter the domain of child custody cases.29
II.
Even assuming the propriety of extending jurisdiction under the federal habeas statute to the Lehman children, our inquiry does not end. Rather, what deserves special scrutiny here is whether it is proper for a mother in the posture of Mrs. Lehman to bring a habeas action on behalf of30 children in the present situation.31
Normally, the law entrusts parents with providing for the basic needs of a child,32 and out of respect for the "integrity of the family unit"33 is reluctant to intervene in the private family domain. As the Supreme Court declared in Prince v. Massachusetts, "(i)t is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder."
It might thus not appear illogical that should the state break up this family unit, a parent would have standing to challenge the intrusion as an infringement of the parental interest, of the family's interests, and, on the children's behalf, of their interest in an intimate, ongoing association.35 But it is important to recognize that parents and children do not have identical interests. Clearly, the parental interest in the companionship, care and custody of the children is a strong one and is reciprocated by the child's equally weighty interest in the nurture, love and instruction of the parents.36 However, the children have independent, private interests not necessarily shared by the parents,37 just as the parents have interests in the children that are not reflected by the children themselves.38
For example, in Planned Parenthood of Missouri v. Danforth,
The existence of a "best interests of the child" standard, often used in domestic custody disputes,40 is a further recognition that minors have interests and constitutional rights separate from those of the parents. Whether the judicial scheme permits independent legal counsel for the child, thus acknowledging the inability of the parents or the court to represent fully the interests of the child,41 or retains the traditional model of the judge as parens patriae, protecting the child's interest, it attests to divergencies in the parents' and childrens' interest.42
Additionally, the state itself has a stake in the child's welfare. While the state's interest does not necessarily mirror the child's wishes, it similarly may not elide with the parent's conception of what is best for the child.43 Thus, despite society's disinclination to subordinate parental prerogative to governmental authority, it has been recognized that the state can set limits on parental discretion when the physical or mental health of children is in jeopardy.44 It is in this context, then, that it is necessary to determine whether Mrs. Lehman can be presumed to be speaking "on behalf of" the children so as to merit extending the use of habeas to persons whose parental rights have been terminated.
Although procedural protection can ordinarily be extended to one's liberty interest without diminishing the substantive liberty of another, the present situation illustrates that this is not universally valid.45 Once a parent's rights are terminated, a parent is no longer presumed to represent the interests of the child.46 Even if we assume that the statute under which the termination occurred, and which survived attack in the state courts, is unconstitutional, it is highly possible that Mrs. Lehman, in challenging the statute ostensibly on behalf of the children, may actually be asserting an interest that derogates from the child's interest.47 That is, the child's interest in a sound family environment that the state statute was intended to protect may not be properly represented by the parent's demand for family unity.
The divergent interests between parent and child become clear when we focus on what Mrs. Lehman's federal habeas claim addresses. She is not, in this proceeding, attempting to prove her fitness as a parent or even her right to permanent custody of the children. Rather, she is attacking the state standard under which she was adjudicated "incapacitated" a standard which, in light of traditional deference to family autonomy, we must assume was crafted to give leeway to parental authority while incorporating the community's conception of minimally acceptable family conduct and the child's interest in mental health and protection. In contesting the state statute which already embodies a balance between the needs of the parent and the child, Mrs. Lehman is potentially undercutting the child's right and interest in a minimum parent-child relationship.
It may be that Mrs. Lehman has standing to make this challenge to the statute as an infringement of her rights directly in state or federal courts, such as in a suit brought under § 1983. But what is questionable here is her right to resort to a habeas petition, which can be framed only on behalf of her children. Once Mrs. Lehman voluntarily relinquished custody of her children ten years ago, the presumption of family integrity was undermined. The long period of separation, and the development by the children of stable ties with a different set of persons in loco parentis, further underscores the potential discrepancies between the interests of Mrs. Lehman and her children.48 If Mrs. Lehman were to succeed in her habeas attack, a new state termination statute undoubtedly would be enacted to avoid the defects which Mrs. Lehman claims the present law possesses. Yet, upon reinstitution of the termination proceedings, Mrs. Lehman might well lose custody of her children once again. Inescapably, then, Mrs. Lehman's interests and her children's are not, in the context of this case, the same.
While the intervention of the state via parental termination proceedings signals a potential nonalignment of the parent and child's interests, another element the interest in finality is likely to be valued quite differently by parent and child. The parent's prime interest is theoretically in restoring family unity; the redundancy of habeas corpus and the prolongation of litigation is a burden which the parent may consider worth enduring for the sake of reestablishing parental rights. For the child, however, a prompt end to litigation and the clear establishment of a permanent association with a parent figure would seem to be the important goal.49 From this perspective, it would not appear that the writ of habeas is being exercised here on behalf of the children.50 This is especially so in a termination situation, where the unqualified ending of the original relationship offers the child an opportunity for an uninterrupted association following adoption by a new parent figure. Moreover, the prospect of a parent bringing a habeas petition on a child's behalf years after the termination of parental rights, and years after the child has attained an established relationship with another parent figure, presents an even greater potential conflict between the parent and child's interests.51
III.
Accordingly, since it appears that a federal court does not have jurisdiction over the habeas petition in this case, and because even if it did it does not appear that Mrs. Lehman has standing to assert such an action on behalf of the three children, I would affirm the judgment of the district court.
SEITZ, Chief Judge, concurring.
I find this to be a most difficult case. On the one hand, I believe that the habeas corpus statute relied on by Ms. Lehman can be read to encompass this constitutional challenge to the Lehman boys' custody. Ms. Lehman contends that her sons are "in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court in violation of the Constitution " See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a) (1976). There is no suggestion that Ms. Lehman has failed to exhaust available state remedies. See id. § 2254(b). Therefore, the literal statutory requirements for exercise of section 2254 federal habeas corpus jurisdiction can be said to be satisfied.
Nevertheless, I believe that it is inappropriate for a federal court to exercise its jurisdiction in this case, whether jurisdiction is said to be present by virtue of section 2254 or because Ms. Lehman presents a federal question for which habeas corpus is merely a remedy. Attempts to seek federal habeas corpus when challenging state child-custody determinations have not been made until recently. See Sylvander v. Home for Little Wanderers,
I therefore vote to affirm the judgment of the district court.
ROSENN, Circuit Judge, dissenting.*
A plurality of this court is of the opinion that this proceeding essentially involves "no more than the question of who shall raise a child to maturity" and holds that it does not sufficiently implicate the federal interest in personal liberty to warrant federal habeas corpus. Garth pl. op., supra at 146.1 In essence, the plurality sees the case as one involving nothing more than the custody of some children. But the question of who shall raise a child to maturity is not the issue now before us. The merits of Ms. Lehman's capability to raise her children, a matter which absorbs about one-third of Judge Garth's opinion, are likewise irrelevant at this time. The narrow but important issue before us is whether the district court erroneously dismissed for lack of jurisdiction the habeas corpus petition's constitutional challenge to Pennsylvania's statute permitting the State to terminate permanently the rights of a parent in her children without her consent. Inasmuch as only that narrow question is before us and because I believe the district court had jurisdiction to entertain the petition, I respectfully dissent.2
I.
When Marjorie Lehman placed her three sons with the Lycoming County Children's Services Agency (Agency) for temporary foster care, she and the Agency apparently intended that the custody would be only temporary and that the children would be returned after her expected childbirth confinement and after satisfactory housing had been obtained.3 The Agency later became convinced that she was incapable of raising her three sons and resisted Ms. Lehman's efforts to obtain the return of her sons. It filed a petition in the Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming County under section 311(2) of the Pennsylvania Adoption Act of 1970, 1 P.S. § 311(2) (Supp.1980), seeking to terminate the mother's parental rights.
The court did not find the appellant neglectful or abusive but found that she was "incapable of providing minimal care, control and supervision for the three children" and that her incapacity could not be remedied. In re William Lehman, Nos. 2986-88 (C.P. Lycoming County, June 3, 1976). Accordingly, the court granted the petition and awarded temporary custody of the children to the Agency pending placement in a foster home. The court also rejected Ms. Lehman's contention that section 311 of the Pennsylvania Adoption Act is unconstitutionally vague. On appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, appellant again raised her constitutional challenge. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, however, upheld the lower court and found the statute to be constitutional. In re William L.,
Thereafter, appellant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on behalf of her three sons. The petition, alleging that the children are unlawfully detained and restrained of their liberty by the Lycoming County Children's Services Agency in violation of the fourteenth amendment, sought to have them released from the custody of the Agency and returned to their mother's custody. The district court, however, dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction, Lehman v. Lycoming County Children's Services Agency, Civ. No. 79-65 (M.D.Pa., Sept. 4, 1979), and sua sponte issued a certificate of probable cause.
II.
As the plurality indicates, whether federal habeas corpus is available to assert federal constitutional claims challenging state custody of a child pursuant to state proceedings terminating parental rights has been addressed at length by only one other federal appellate court. In Sylvander v. New England Home for Little Wanderers,
The First Circuit's decision rested upon its perception that the state interests in family law matters outweigh the "collateral" federal interests in the adjudication of federal constitutional rights.4 From Sylvander the plurality draws the following conclusions: (1) A permanent termination of parental rights in children does not present "the same, strong claim for overriding the interest in finality as inheres in the plea of a prisoner that he has been incarcerated in violation of the Constitution of the United States." Garth pl. op., supra at 140. (2) "(H)abeas lies to challenge unlawful custody, but unlawful custody is simply not the issue in a parental rights termination case. It is not the liberty interest of the children that is sought to be protected in such a case, but only the right by the particular parent to raise them." Id.
I can only assume that the plurality would reach the same conclusion in every case involving a child even if the parent and child had an overriding love and attachment for each other where because of some exigency the State had acquired custody of the child. For example, suppose the father of several children had been killed in an automobile accident, his wife severely injured, and the children placed in temporary custody with the State. The plurality would hold that under such circumstances the mother could not assert her federal constitutional rights or the federal constitutional rights of her children in a federal court to resist an effort to terminate permanently the parental relationship between the children and her. For the reasons set forth below I disagree with Sylvander and the conclusions that the plurality draws from it. Moreover, because Sylvander concerned custody of a private adoption agency and did not involve state action, I conclude that its relevance to the case at bar is limited.
As I have already suggested, the question whether there is federal habeas corpus jurisdiction should not depend on the federal court's agreement or disagreement with the state court's disposition of the merits of the case. Such an approach is unsupported by accepted principles of jurisprudence. Jurisdiction consists only of the abstract power of a court to try a case of the kind or character of the one under consideration. Disposition of the issue presented by this case depends upon the resolution of two underlying questions. The first is whether federal review of state custody proceedings terminating parental rights in a child is available under the terms of the federal habeas corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 & 2254. The second is whether, on balance, the exercise of federal habeas corpus jurisdiction in such cases serves the concerns of federal-state comity as well as other relevant policy considerations. I now turn to the first concern, the availability of federal review under the terms of the federal habeas corpus statute.
III.
At common law, the writ of habeas corpus originated as a method by which the superior courts of the common law and the chancellor could extend their jurisdiction at the expense of inferior or rival courts. Ultimately, it took form and survived as the writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum by which the legality of the detention of one in the custody of another could be tested judicially. McNally v. Hill,
The importance of the writ is implicitly recognized by the terms of the Constitution. Article I, section 9, clause 2 provides: "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." Congress first extended to the federal courts the power to issue writs of habeas corpus in the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789, ch. 20, § 14, 1 Stat. 73, 81-82. The custody requirement of that statute was found in its prescription that the writ be used "for the purpose of an inquiry into the cause of commitment." That commitment, however, could be either civil or criminal. Ex parte Randolph,
Thus, in its original form in our nation's history, the Great Writ did not reach the pleas of prisoners in state jails, those who have become the archetypal petitioners of modern days. It was not until passage of the Judiciary Act of February 5, 1867, ch. 28, § 1, 14 Stat. 385-86, that the writ was first made generally available to state prisoners. The removal in 1867 of the exception to the broad jurisdictional grant of 1789 made the Great Writ available to anyone "restrained of his or her liberty in violation of the constitution." Thus, the Supreme Court has observed that "the writ of habeas corpus should be left sufficiently elastic so that a court may, in the exercise of its proper jurisdiction, deal effectively with any and all forms of illegal restraint." Price v. Johnston,
In modern times, the Supreme Court has stated:
The writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action. Its pre-eminent role is recognized by the admonition in the Constitution that: "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended " U.S.Const., Art. I, § 9, cl. 2. The scope and flexibility of the writ its capacity to reach all manner of illegal detention its ability to cut through barriers of form and procedural mazes have always been emphasized and jealously guarded by courts and lawmakers. The very nature of the writ demands that it be administered with the initiative and flexibility essential to insure that miscarriages of justice within its reach are surfaced and corrected.
Harris v. Nelson,
The current federal habeas corpus statute provides:
(a) The Supreme Court, a Justice thereof, a circuit judge, or a district court shall entertain an application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court only on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.
(b) An application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted unless it appears that the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in the courts of the State, or that there is either an absence of available State corrective process or the existence of circumstances rendering such process ineffective to protect the rights of the prisoner.
28 U.S.C. § 2254. See 28 U.S.C. § 2241. Thus, there are four basic requirements to the exercise of federal habeas corpus jurisdiction. The person in whose behalf the petition is brought must be alleged to be (1) "in custody," (2) in violation of the federal laws or Constitution, (3) "pursuant to the judgment of a State court," and (4) available state remedies must be exhausted.
First, I think it cannot be gainsaid that appellant's sons are "in custody" within the meaning of the statute. In recent years the concept of custody has been expanded to include not only actual physical confinement but also other severe forms of personal restraint. Of course, the Great Writ always could and still can reach behind prison walls. But recent Supreme Court decisions have made it clear that habeas corpus "is not now and never has been a static, narrow, formalistic remedy; its scope has grown to achieve its grand purpose the protection of individuals against erosion of their right to be free from wrongful restraints upon their liberty." Jones v. Cunningham,
Contrary to the plurality's reading of Sylvander, neither the district court nor the First Circuit held that the children were not "in custody" for purposes of section 2254. In fact, in relating the district court's conclusion on the matter the circuit court stated:
The district court found that Michael, although living with foster parents, remained under the supervision and control of the Home, "a private, non-profit agency engaged in child care," and that this was sufficient to constitute "custody" in the Home.
Second, Ms. Lehman's petition alleges that the custody of her children is in violation of several provisions of the United States Constitution. The petition asserts that section 311(2) of the Pennsylvania Adoption Act of 1970, under the provisions of which her parental rights were terminated, is unconstitutionally vague both on its face and as applied to her. In addition, she alleges that termination of her parental rights violated the fourteenth amendment because the Commonwealth failed to utilize less drastic alternatives. Furthermore, she avers that the Commonwealth had no compelling interest in terminating her parental rights in the absence of a finding that she had failed to provide adequate child care or that she would expose her children to serious and substantial harm in the future.
Third, the Commonwealth's custody of the children is pursuant to the judgment of a state court, the Orphans Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. In re William Lehman, Nos. 2986-88 (C.P. Lycoming County, June 3, 1976). Finally, having presented her constitutional argument to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, appellant has satisfied the exhaustion requirement of section 2254. Accordingly, I believe that the requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 2254 have been satisfied and that, absent important policy reasons to the contrary, federal habeas jurisdiction is available to this appellant.
As I read the plurality opinion, it concludes that the Lehman boys are not "in custody" as that term is used in section 2254 and that, even if they were, the State's interest in the finality of its judgments, when combined with the traditional federal policy of deferral in the area of family law, outweighs the federal interest in keeping individuals free from unconstitutional deprivation of their personal liberties. I find this striking of the balance to be historically and rationally unacceptable.
The argument is advanced that were we to allow the exercise of federal habeas jurisdiction in the case before us, we will have effectively allowed an end run around the preclusive effect given state court judgments under section 1983. The plurality appears to have succumbed to this argument. But the plurality itself points out that state court judgments are shielded from section 1983 attacks only if the federal constitutional claims upon which the civil rights action rests were actually litigated in the state courts. See Garth pl. op., supra at 138 n.4. The plurality also acknowledges that the policy of federal deferral in matters involving family law will not override the federal interest in redressing unconstitutional deprivations of personal liberties when alleged in a section 1983 complaint.7 Similarly, if the allegations in the complaint are proved, no amount of state concern for finality of its judgments will prevent a federal court from restraining the execution of the state judgment. Thus, it is not the state court's disposition of questions of family law, an area in which state courts are regarded as having special expertise,8 that is protected by this court's rejection of Ms. Lehman's habeas corpus petition; rather, it is the state court's rulings on her federal constitutional claims that the majority holds that we are powerless to review.
The plurality's conclusion that we should not, as a matter of federal-state comity, undertake to review the propriety of the Pennsylvania courts' rulings on substantive federal constitutional law rests merely on the bald assertion that this case does not impinge "with special harshness on liberty." Even if that were the jurisdictional standard which I do not concede, and the plurality fails to cite any case that so holds how can one plausibly declare that the removal of a child by the State from his natural family and the non-consensual termination for all time of the reciprocal relationships between mother and children impinges less on personal liberty than the call to active duty of an inactive reservist who had not yet reported for service, Hammond v. Lenfest,
For the reasons stated below it appears to me that, on balance, the exercise of federal habeas corpus jurisdiction accommodates the competing interests of the federal government and of the state in the privacy of the family without sacrificing the important concerns of either.
IV.
I now turn to the question which I mentioned earlier, whether on balance, the exercise of federal habeas corpus jurisdiction serves the concerns of federal-state comity and other relevant policy considerations. In Sylvander v. New England Home for Little Wanderers, supra, the court reasoned that competing policy considerations militate against the exercise of federal habeas jurisdiction. The factors identified in Sylvander as militating against the exercise of federal habeas jurisdiction were primarily two: (1) exercise of habeas jurisdiction would interfere with significant state interests in the regulation of the family and domestic matters while serving only a collateral federal interest, and (2) there is no need to exercise federal habeas jurisdiction because other existing avenues of relief afford sufficient protection for federal constitutional rights. I consider each of these in turn.
The state interest in family relationships is well established and recognized by the federal courts. As the Supreme Court stated in In re Burrus,
It is undisputed that this case does not involve a dispute between parents over the custody of their children. These are the types of disputes alluded to by the plurality which normally involve a determination of "who shall raise (the) child" and with which parent the child will reside. I repeat, what is at issue here is the constitutionality of a state statute that empowers the State to terminate permanently parental rights in their children without their consent and the many sensitive implications that follow therefrom. I see a fundamental difference between an action in which family members are struggling over, in the words of the plurality, "who will raise the child to maturity" and an action in which the State, even with all its beneficent motivations, moves against an existing family unit for the purpose of legally dismembering it. The latter, because the State proceeds against an individual and effectively deprives that individual of fundamental personal liberties, is not too unlike a criminal prosecution. Cf. Moore v. Sims,
This is a proceeding in which the State itself has taken temporary custody of the children after utilizing its own judicial machinery to terminate, permanently and in all respects, the legal relationship of the children and their natural mother. Thus, this is not merely a dispute over which of the children's natural parents should raise them but whether the State may constitutionally forever foreclose the children from any relationship whatsoever with their natural parent. The important social and psychological consequences of this distinction cannot be overemphasized. The total extinction of a familial relationship between children and their biological parents is the most drastic measure that a state can impose, short of criminal sanctions, to protect disadvantaged or neglected children. The termination of the mother's rights in her children is, in effect, a declaration to the children that their mother is legally dead. Therefore, any suggestion that the exercise of jurisdiction in this case will lead to the exercise of jurisdiction in ordinary child custody disputes between natural parents is disingenuous and palpably unrealistic.
Significant federal interests are implicated here. The Constitution recognizes a right to be free from unnecessary state intrusion into family relationships. The freedom of personal choice in matters of family life is protected by the Due Process Clause of the fourteenth amendment. Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur,
The United States Constitution recognizes a "private realm of family life which the state cannot enter." Prince v. Massachusetts,
The importance of familial relationships to minor children is particularly significant. An intimate relationship with a loving, caring adult is imperative for children. Most often this is provided by the natural parent and the law so presumes. The Supreme Court has observed that "historically (the law) has recognized that natural bonds of affection lead parents to act in the best interests of their children." Parham v. J. R.,
The Supreme Court has "recognized on numerous occasions that the relationship between parent and child is constitutionally protected."11 Quilloin v. Wolcott,
The Supreme Court has expressed in a variety of contexts an individual's right to be free of unwarranted state intrusion into family relationships. Significantly, for the purposes of the case before us, it has acted to enforce the federal interests implicated in state child custody proceedings. In Quilloin v. Wolcott, supra, for instance, the Court considered the claim of an unwed father that, as a matter of due process and equal protection, he was entitled to an absolute veto over the adoption of his child. In Smith v. Organization of Foster Families for Equality & Reform, supra, the Court entertained an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 which alleged that the New York procedures governing the removal of foster children from foster homes violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution. Although the Court upheld the challenged statute, it recognized the importance of the biological family relationship in the nurturing and development of children.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court has made clear that natural parents have federal constitutional rights upon which the states may not encroach.12 In Stanley v. Illinois,
The private interest here, that of a man in the children he has sired and raised, undeniably warrants deference and, absent a powerful countervailing interest, protection. It is plain that the interest of a parent in the companionship, care, custody, and management of his or her children "come(s) to this Court with a momentum for respect lacking when appeal is made to liberties which derive merely from shifting economic arrangements."
Id.
Other federal courts have followed the Supreme Court's lead and acted to enforce these important federal rights under the civil rights statutes. In Duchesne v. Sugarman,
Here we are concerned with the most essential and basic aspect of familial privacy the right of the family to remain together without the coercive interference of the awesome power of the state. This right to the preservation of family integrity encompasses the reciprocal rights of both parent and children. It is the interest of the parent in the "companionship, care, custody and management of his or her children," Stanley v. Illinois,
In Alsager v. District Court,
V.
The relevant inquiry then is not whether the exercise of federal jurisdiction is ever appropriate in cases involving family relationships. The overwhelming weight of applicable precedent clearly indicates that such jurisdiction is not only appropriate but necessary.16 Rather, the question is whether countervailing considerations of federal-state comity render inappropriate the exercise of federal habeas corpus jurisdiction when the constitutionality of a state statute providing for permanent non-consensual termination of parental rights in their children is challenged. It bears iteration that intellectually that abstract question should be decided separate and apart from the merits of the case.
An historical accommodation has been developed between the state and federal courts respecting the administration of federal habeas corpus. Following the Civil War, federal habeas jurisdiction was expanded to what was believed to be the constitutional limit. See Ex parte McCardle,
While the federal courts have the power and may discharge the accused in advance of his trial, if he is restrained of his liberty in violation of the Federal Constitution or laws the practice of exercising such power before the question has been raised or determined in the state is one which ought not to be encouraged. The party charged waives no defect of jurisdiction by submitting to a trial of his case upon the merits, and we think that comity demands that the state courts, under whose process he is held, and which are equally with the Federal courts charged with the duty of protecting the accused in the enjoyment of his constitutional rights, should be appealed to in the first instance. Should such rights be denied, his remedy in the Federal court will remain unimpaired.
Cook v. Hart,
The continuing role of federal habeas corpus jurisdiction in accommodating competing federal and state concerns was more recently expressed in Preiser v. Rodriguez,
In the case at bar, appellant has, in conformance with federal policy, presented to and received from the state courts an adjudication of her federal constitutional claims. In particular, I take note of the well-reasoned and thoughtful opinion of Justice Roberts writing for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In Re William L., supra,
Here, the Commonwealth has terminated the constitutionally protected relationship of appellant and her three sons and taken temporary custody of the children. Although I express no opinion as to whether that action was appropriate, I believe that federal habeas corpus is an available remedy in this case. My conclusion is based on the following reasons. First, federal habeas corpus rests upon the paramount importance of preventing unlawful restraint and represents a considered judgment by the Congress that federal jurisdiction should be exercised when the statutory requirements are met. In the case before us, the three sons of Ms. Lehman are in the custody of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under the authority of an allegedly unconstitutional statute and she has exhausted available state remedies. Hence, the requirements of the federal habeas statute are met and federal habeas jurisdiction must be exercised unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary. Second, although there is an important state interest in the regulation of domestic relations, the case before us is not the ordinary dispute between parents for the custody of a child but concerns the power of a state statutorily to extinguish for all time the reciprocal liberty interests of a natural mother and her children through a state custody proceeding. Under such extraordinary circumstances, there is an overriding federal interest in ensuring that state intervention in family relationships takes place within constitutional bounds. Finally, the exhaustion requirements of federal habeas corpus offer an appropriate accommodation of those competing state and federal interests by requiring that the federal claims be brought first in state court while preserving the opportunity for federal review. Federal review, of course, would be limited to the federal constitutional claims. The question of the custody of the children would still remain in the state courts for determination subject to appropriate federal constitutional guidelines.18
Therefore, I believe federal habeas corpus jurisdiction may be invoked to challenge the constitutionality of a state statute which empowers the state to take custody of children and permanently terminate without consent the reciprocal rights and liberty interests of parent and children.
Accordingly, I would reverse the order of the district court dismissing appellant's petition for want of jurisdiction and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr. and SLOVITER, Circuit Judges, join in this dissent.
GIBBONS, Circuit Judge, dissenting
Marjorie Lehman appeals from the dismissal of her complaint seeking a writ of habeas corpus to regain custody of her children from the Lycoming County Children's Service Agency. As the several plurality opinions and Judge Rosenn's dissenting opinion note, her federal complaint was filed after she unsuccessfully litigated her claim for the childrens' custody in the Pennsylvania courts, and unsuccessfully petitioned for certiorari. The federal constitutional challenges which she asserts against the statute under which her parental rights were terminated, resulting in the loss of the custody of her children, are significant, but were not considered by the district court because it dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. I conclude that the dismissal was error, and should be reversed. I disagree, however, with the analysis of the issues in any of the opinions which have been filed.
The source of the confusion in resolving this case is appellant's attempt to treat habeas corpus as a source of federal subject matter jurisdiction. Habeas corpus, however, is relevant only as a remedy in aid of the court's exercise of such jurisdiction. The debate over the appropriateness of habeas corpus as a source of jurisdiction has sparked a misguided standing discussion, and, more importantly, has obscured the real nature of Ms. Lehman's claim. Ms. Lehman is arguing, on her own behalf, that Pennsylvania's termination of her parental rights was invalid because the relevant statute is unconstitutionally vague. Custody, a statutory incident to the termination decision, is significant only in the event that Ms. Lehman prevails in her constitutional challenge. In that case, the state would no longer have custodial rights in the children, and their return could be obtained through the habeas corpus remedy. There is federal subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343(a), and the case should be remanded for determination of the res judicata effect of the state termination decision.I
Habeas Corpus Does Not Provide Jurisdiction But May Be
Available As A Remedy
The starting point for consideration of the power of a federal court to issue a writ dealing with custody is section 14 of the Judiciary Act of 1789:
That all the before-mentioned Courts of the United States, (District, Circuit, and Supreme) shall have power to issue writs of scire facias, habeas corpus, and all other writs not specially provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions (elsewhere defined), and agreeable to the principles and usages of law. And that either of the justices of the supreme court, as well as judges of the district courts, shall have power to grant writs of habeas corpus for the purpose of an inquiry into the cause of commitment. Provided, That writs of habeas corpus shall in no case extend to prisoners in gaol, unless where they are in custody, under or by color of the authority of the United States, or are committed for trial before some court of the same, or are necessary to be brought into court to testify.
1 Stat. 81-82 (1789) (footnote omitted).
Section 14 is not a statute dealing with jurisdiction. The first sentence simply deals with the power of courts to issue various kinds of mesne process necessary to their respective jurisdiction; jurisdiction, however, is elsewhere defined. Habeas corpus is listed with another mesne process writ, scire facias, and with an omnibus clause including all such writs.
In the second sentence, the power of single judges or justices sitting as members of a circuit court, was limited with respect to prisoners in jail. Whereas the first sentence deals with the powers of the courts, the subsequent reference to "either of the justices as well as the judges of the district court" is quite specifically a reference to the powers of the individual members of the original circuit courts which were comprised of two Supreme Court Justices and one District Court Judge. Section 4, 1 Stat. 74-75. Those single members of a circuit court, acting individually and not as a court, were given only the more limited power of inquiring "into the cause of commitment," rather than the general mesne process powers conferred on the court by the first sentence. That the commitment referred to in the section dealing with a single judge's powers is commitment to "gaol" is made clear by the proviso immediately following the second sentence.
Since it was common in 1789 to use various forms of capias writs in civil litigation, it is possible that the power of a single judge or justice to "inquir(e) into the cause of commitment" was intended to apply to civil commitments as well as criminal. In any event, however, habeas corpus as court process was not confined to inquiries into the causes of commitment to "gaol." As court process, habeas corpus included all uses of any form of the writ necessary for the exercise of jurisdiction. The proviso, which excepts state prisoners from federal habeas corpus relief, refers only to prisoners in "gaol," and thus in no way limits the courts' power to issue writs for other than prisoners in "gaol."1
Thus the suggestion that "(i)n America, the history of federal courts' jurisdiction to issue the writ of habeas corpus is one of carefully controlled statutory expansion," concurring opinion, at 148, is wrong for several reasons. First, section 14 was not jurisdictional. Second, except for prisoners in jail, to which the proviso applied, the grant of statutory authority to courts as distinguished from single judges was as broad as the common law. Every one of the careful statutory expansions to which either opinion of the majority refers involved prisoners in jail who would otherwise have fallen under the interpretation of the proviso announced in Ex parte Dorr,
The first sentence of section 14, with which we are concerned, is now codified in two places. 28 U.S.C. § 2241(a) provides:
Writs of habeas corpus may be granted by the Supreme Court, any justice thereof, the district courts and any circuit judge within their respective jurisdictions.
28 U.S.C. § 1651(a) provides:
The Supreme Court and all courts established by Act of Congress may issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.
There has been no time since 1789 that federal courts lacked the power to issue writs for obtaining custody, other than for state prisoners, if such writs were in aid of their exercise of existing subject matter jurisdiction. The plurality's attempts to have the state prisoners proviso swallow sections 1651(a) and 2241(a) simply do not fit the legislative history of the governing statutes. That the All Writs statute authorizes writs other than in those instances provided in 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c) concerning state prisoners is made plain by Price v. Johnston,
The habeas corpus question to be resolved, which has nothing to do with the prisoner subsection, 28 U.S.C. § 2241(c), or with any of the cases on which the plurality opinions rely, is whether at common law habeas corpus could be used to obtain custody of children from someone other than a jailkeeper.4 The answer is clear. In Jones v. Cunningham,
For example, the King's Bench as early as 1722 held that habeas corpus was appropriate to question whether a woman alleged to be the applicant's wife was being constrained by her guardians to stay away from her husband against her will. 4 The test used was simply whether she was "at her liberty to go where she please(d)." 5 So also, habeas corpus was used in 1763 to require the production in court of an indentured 18-year-old girl who had been assigned by her master to another man "for bad purposes." 6 Although the report indicates no restraint on the girl other than the covenants of the indenture, the King's Bench ordered that she "be discharged from all restraint, and be at liberty to go where she will." 7 And more than a century ago an English court permitted a parent to use habeas corpus to obtain his children from the other parent, even though the children were "not under imprisonment, restraint, or duress of any kind." 8 These examples show clearly that English courts have not treated the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, 31 Car. II, c.2 the forerunner of all habeas corpus acts as permitting relief only to those in jail or like physical confinement.
II
Does A Federal Court Have Subject Matter Jurisdiction
Since from the eighteenth century habeas corpus has been a traditional remedy by which to regain custody of wives and children, and even servants, and any use of habeas corpus as mesne process has, except in state prisoner cases, always been available to federal courts otherwise having subject matter jurisdiction, the next question is whether the complaint states facts under which the plaintiff could prove a claim within that jurisdiction.7 That question does not, as Judge Garth suggests, depend on whether "there is an inherent right to a litigant to have a federal court consider a federal claim." Plurality opinion, at 144. Rather, it depends on whether Ms. Lehman's substantive claim is predicated on federal law, and whether Congress has entered a jurisdictional statute. Here the claim is predicated on a violation of due process. Sections 1331 and 1343(a)(3) of Title 28 of the United States Code afford jurisdiction over such claims. As Judge Garth acknowledges, plurality opinion at 145, this claim is one which could have been brought in the federal court in the first instance.
One barrier to subject matter jurisdiction in the district court was the ill-considered statement of a divided panel in Solomon v. Solomon,
The presently controlling precedent for subject matter jurisdiction is, as Judge Garth acknowledges, New Jersey Education Ass'n v. Burke,
III
Standing
As both Judge Garth and Judge Rosenn note, Judge Adams' standing contention is a matter going to the merits which were not considered by the district court. Unlike them, however, I believe it can properly be considered here. Certainly we can affirm a dismissal of a complaint on erroneous jurisdictional grounds for the different reason that it fails to state grounds upon which relief could be granted. Harold Friedman, Inc. v. Thorofare Markets, Inc.,
Judge Adams asserts that Ms. Lehman lacks standing to assert the present habeas claim for custody of her children. He reasons that whereas the state has an interest in the welfare of the child, Ms. Lehman, in attacking the method by which the state has asserted that interest "may actually be asserting an interest that derogates from the child's interest." Concurring opinion, at 154. It is because of this possibly divergent interest that she is said to lack standing to seek their custody. This argument again confuses the posture of this case and the relevance of Ms. Lehman's request for habeas relief.11 Plaintiff is not suing primarily for custody but, rather, is challenging the state's termination of her parental rights. Custody would be awarded only as a matter of relief. Certainly Ms. Lehman has standing to be in federal court; Judge Adams, in footnote 31, admits as much. Whether she wins or not, however, is another matter. Judge Adams errs in attempting to decide Ms. Lehman's right to bring suit by imposing his views as to whether she should be accorded the relief she seeks.
In doing so, he attaches legal significance to the fact that years ago, in necessitous circumstances, Ms. Lehman temporarily relinquished custody. By the legerdemain of lack of standing Judge Adams decides that Ms. Lehman's conduct is legally significant, giving legal effect to it to bar her at the courthouse door. By couching this decision in terms of that slippery and indefinite term "standing," he relieves himself of the obligation to explain to his colleagues and the world why the circumstances of that surrender of temporary custody ought to warrant the denial of Ms. Lehman's right even to be heard to claim that her children would be better off with her nurturing.
Even if one were to accept the proposition that an issue in dispute should be decided sub silentio in the guise of a standing holding, there remains the ipsi dixit that Ms. Lehman cannot resort to habeas corpus to assert her rights. Why not? Certainly a natural parent has rights which the law recognizes. When a husband resorts to habeas corpus because his wife is being kept away from him, the court obviously will consider whether the wife prefers other company. But he, certainly, has standing to claim that he has lost her companionship and services. So, too, when masters brought habeas corpus actions to obtain the return of bonded servants they certainly were asserting their own interests.
Thus I am not persuaded that Judge Adams' standing argument justifies the dismissal of the complaint.
IV
Res Judicata
The only real issue presented by this appeal is whether the judgment of the Pennsylvania court requires dismissal of Ms. Lehman's complaint as a matter of law. As with the habeas corpus discussion, the starting point is a statute. In any court in the United States, state or federal, the judgment preclusion effect of an earlier state court judgment is governed not by some abstractions derived from general principles, but by 28 U.S.C. § 1738. Since 1790 that statute has provided in relevant part:
Such judicial proceedings shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States as they have by law or usage in the courts of such State from which they are taken.
At most, then, a district court confronted with a claim of res judicata is bound by a state court judgment only to the extent that the rendering state would be bound. See, e. g., Ford v. Ford,
What scarce Pennsylvania case law there is suggests that termination proceedings, governed by 1 Pa.Cons.Stat. §§ 301 et seq. (Purdon Supp.1979), are modifiable and subject to reopening. In In re Adoption of R.H.,
By statute, a termination decree necessarily includes a custody award.13 Given that custody is a necessary incident of the termination decree, Pennsylvania law as to the finality of custody determinations is particularly instructive. Significantly, Pennsylvania permits reopening. In 1977 it enacted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, Pa.Stat.Ann. tit. 11, §§ 2301-2325 (Purdon Supp.1980-1981). An avowedly jurisdictional statute, the Act is predicated on the assumption that all custody decrees are modifiable. Its purpose is simply to formalize a type of jurisdictional etiquette so as to minimize interstate conflict over the modifications. The reporter for the Special Committee which drafted the Act has said that it was based on the assumption that although states need not recognize as binding a custody decision of another state, they are authorized to do so. Bodenheimer, The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act: A Legislative Remedy for Children Caught in the Conflict of Laws, 22 Vand.L.Rev. 1207, 1232 (1969). See May v. Anderson,
Because of the posture in which the case is before us a dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction the district court gave no consideration to what the law of Pennsylvania is on reopening either termination or custody determinations. My independent exploration of it does not leave me confident to say what that law is in all circumstances.
But federal law, binding Pennsylvania, would, I submit, require reopening on the basis of the constitutional infirmity of a judgment having ongoing effects. The reference in section 1738 to the law of the rendering state is a reference not only to the state's statutes and case law, but to federal law, constitutional and otherwise, relevant to the issue. Such law is the law of every state. Thus in determining whether or not a given decree can be given ongoing effects or whether or not a plaintiff should be relieved from such effects, federal law is fully operative.14 Section 1738 cannot be interpreted as requiring us to give ongoing effect to an unconstitutional judgment. Although the literal words of section 1738 direct state and federal courts to the law of the rendering state and no further, literalism has never been the rule of construction applied to that statute. It is federal statutory law, not state law, which requires that a state court judgment be given any effect in the courts of another sovereignty. If that federal statutory law were to be construed to require giving ongoing effect to state court judgments which violated federal constitutional standards, the federal statute would itself violate the fifth amendment.
The due process limitations upon a literal interpretation of section 1738 are, in the jurisdiction to adjudicate and adequacy of notice and opportunity to be heard senses, obvious. Thus even before the fourteenth amendment it was recognized that despite the literal language of section 1738 some judgments were not enforceable in other courts in the same manner as in the original forum. Boswell's Lessee v. Otis,
These obvious constitutional limitations on literal application of the statute do not, however, exhaust the range of constitutional limits on federal statutory law. If, for example, a state court injunctive judgment, long since final, imposed upon a defendant what amounted to a prior restraint in violation of the first amendment, an effort to require that another court, state or federal, give that judgment ongoing effect by virtue of section 1738 also would run afoul of the substantive limitations of the first amendment. Requiring ongoing enforcement of an unconstitutional judgment would infringe on an important superior federal policy. An example of this principle in operation is Wooley v. Maynard,
Arguably Allen v. McCurry, -- U.S. --,
A judgment terminating parental rights and awarding custody, like one imposing a prison sentence, or one imposing a prior restraint, has ongoing effects. It deprives both parent and child of an ongoing relationship. Thus even if at the first level of inquiry it appears that Pennsylvania considers such decrees final for purposes of res judicata, the decrees disfavoring Ms. Lehman cannot be given preclusive effect if her constitutional challenges are valid.16
V
Disposition
Ms. Lehman's challenge to the constitutionality of the Pennsylvania statutory scheme is substantial. In re William L.,
Section 311(2) of the Pennsylvania Adoption Act of 1970, 1 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. § 311(2) (Purdon Supp.1979), authorizes termination of parental rights on the ground that:
The repeated and continued incapacity, abuse, neglect, or refusal of the parent has caused the child to be without essential parental care, control, or subsistence necessary for his physical or mental well-being and the conditions and causes of the incapacity, abuse, neglect, or refusal cannot or will not be remedied by the parent.
The Pennsylvania Adoption Act of 1970, under which Ms. Lehman's parental rights were terminated, see note 1, supra, reflects the judgment that "a parent who is incapable of performing parental duties is just as parentally unfit as one who refuses to perform the duties." In re William L.,
In affirming the judgment of the lower court terminating Ms. Lehman's parental rights in her three sons, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that this strict standard of parental incapacity had been satisfied. Id. at 341-52,
In Pennsylvania, as in virtually all jurisdictions, the overriding concern in child custody proceedings is the best interests of the child. Commonwealth ex rel. Parikh v. Parikh,
A parent has standing to bring a habeas corpus action on behalf of her minor children. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Kirk v. Kirkpatrick,
Normally res judicata bars the relitigation of claims that were raised or could have been raised at the first trial. We have accorded limited res judicata effect to state judgments in subsequent suits under § 1983, applying res judicata only to bar claims that actually were litigated. See New Jersey Educational Ass'n v. Burke,
Not every federal claim can be raised again. See Stone v. Powell,
Indeed, a fair reading of Justice Roberts' thorough and thoughtful opinion for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court suggests that the Lehman boys might find a far greater restriction of their personal liberty in a judgment returning them to their mother's custody than in the actual judgment severing Ms. Lehman's parental rights, inasmuch as each of the boys expressed a clear preference for not living with his mother. In re William L.,
It also emphasized that its custody holding would not lead to a vast expansion of habeas jurisdiction. Id. at 353,
Other cases have assumed that habeas jurisdiction lies in this situation; Rouell v. Oesterle,
It is of little importance that Sylvander involved a state licensed private agency, whereas in this case the Lycoming County Children's Agency is a county institution. In neither case are there restraints present, let alone restraints which impinge with especial harshness on personal liberty, see 83 Harv.L.Rev. supra at 1073, the hallmark of custody in a habeas case
Notes
9a On page 160 of his dissenting opinion, Judge Rosenn asserts that "neither the (Sylvander ) district court nor the First Circuit held that the children were not 'in custody' for the purposes of § 2254." It is true that the district court for the District of Massachusetts so reasoned. It is not true that the First Circuit affirmed that reasoning. Contrary to Judge Rosenn's impression of the court of appeals opinion, a fair reading of the passage quoted in text above from that opinion, indicates beyond question that the court of appeals in Sylvander held that "(t)his is not the kind of custody that has traditionally prompted federal courts to assert their jurisdiction in the face of prior state adjudication."
We recognize that there may be collateral differences between the termination of one parent's custody with the consequent award of the child to the other parent in a typical parental custodial dispute, and the termination of a parent's custody in a state termination proceeding. However, such differences that may exist are not significant in terms of habeas jurisdiction. Whatever effect they may have upon the parent-child relationship do not impact upon nor involve extraordinary restraints on liberty
If we were to permit the use of habeas for state termination proceedings, we would necessarily be obliged to permit the use of habeas for parental custody proceedings, thus opening the federal courts to a substantial number of matters which traditionally have been processed by state tribunals as matters of primary state concern
11a Judge Rosenn's dissent in discussing the litigational strategy employed in a § 1983 action apparently takes issue with the holding of this court in New Jersey Educational Ass'n v. Burke,
Ms. Lehman in her brief suggests that § 1983 cannot provide a basis for the constitutional challenge raised here, and, indeed, that habeas is the exclusive route for such a suit, under the Supreme Court's decision in Preiser v. Rodriguez,
This argument, once its initial premise is accepted, has a certain superficial appeal. But it is no more than another example of "how one goes in, determines how one comes out." Her argument proceeds: since this suit challenges "custody" within the meaning of habeas, habeas is not only an appropriate route for the challenge, it is the exclusive route under Preiser.
We find the converse of her argument, however, to be far more convincing: this action does not challenge "custody" within the meaning of habeas, thus, habeas is an inappropriate basis for the suit, and § 1983 remains available.
Certainly nothing in Preiser precludes our view. Preiser involved a challenge to incarceration brought by an inmate placed in prison as punishment for criminal conduct. The present context, a child custody suit, is for reasons we have discussed earlier, outside the rule of Preiser.
See In re William L.,
See plurality op. ante at 141 n.8 (noting small number of courts that have assumed without discussion, in somewhat different contexts, that habeas jurisdiction lies)
The past century has witnessed the attenuation of extended kinship and tight-knit community ties with the consequent vulnerability of nuclear and one-parent families. As informal social supports for troubled families have diminished, the role of formal social institutions has increased. See D. Rothman, The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic (1971). Cf. Ex parte Crouse,
See B. Sharpe, The Law of Habeas Corpus 169 (1976). Such proceedings include, for example, actions for adoption, custody, or guardianship. See also Stanley v. Illinois,
Plaintiff admits that it makes sense that "the whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the states and not to the laws of the United States." In re Burrus,
See Lyons v. Blenkin, 1 Jac. 245, 37 Eng.Rep. 842 (Ch.1821) (an English case holding that habeas is the proper mode for a father to regain custody of his child from an aunt); In re Matthews, 12 Ir.R.C.L. 233 (1859) (another English case in which the writ of habeas issued at the instance of a mother claiming the legal right to her infant who was then in the custody of a nurse)
Judge Gibbons contends that section 14 is not a jurisdictional statute. That section is, however, part of the first grant of federal court jurisdiction, Act of September 24, 1789. See Fay v. Noia,
Section 14 provided:
That all the before-mentioned courts of the United States shall have power to issue writs of scire facias, habeas corpus, and all other writs, not specially provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, and agreeable to the principles and usages of law. And that either of the justices of the Supreme Court, as well as judges of the district courts, shall have power to grant writs of habeas corpus, for the purpose of an inquiry into the cause of commitment: provided, that writs of habeas corpus shall in no case extend to prisoners in jail, unless where they are in custody under or by color of the authority of the United States, or are committed for trial before some court of the same, or are necessary to be brought into court to testify.
Act of September 24, 1789, ch. 20 § 14, 1 Stat. 73, 81-82 (1789).
See Ex parte Bollman,
See Ex parte Randolph,
As Chief Justice Marshall explained in Ex parte Bollman, a logical construction of the statute required that the proviso be read to apply to both the courts enumerated in the first sentence and the justices and judges in the second sentence.
In Ex parte Dorr,
The conclusion in Ex parte Dorr tends to undercut Judge Rosenn's attempt to give a broad reading to the type of "commitment" comprehended by the second sentence in the 1789 Act.
Ex parte Bollman and Swartwout involved a petition for habeas by the alleged seditious co-conspirators of Aaron Burr, who had been denied bail prior to trial
These include ad respondendum, used when a party wishes to initiate suit against a person already confined by the process of an inferior court; ad satisfaciendum, which enabled one court to award execution on the judgment of another court at common law; ad prosequendum, testificandum, and deliberandum, which issue to remove a prisoner in order to prosecute or to testify in any court, or to be tried in the proper jurisdiction; and the common law writ of ad faciendum et recipiendum, "to do and receive whatever the king's court shall consider in that behalf." Ex parte Bollman,
As explained in Carbo v. United States, "Although our own practice has limited the jurisdiction of courts and justices to issue the Great Writ, we have never abandoned the English system as to the ad prosequendum writ."
The petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Mrs. Lehman alleged that the children are unlawfully detained and restrained of their liberty by the Lycoming Children's Agency in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. It sought release of the children from the custody of the state agency and return to the mother's custody. Such a writ clearly sounds in habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, and cannot be construed as a mesne process or a 28 U.S.C. § 1651 writ that is utilized solely to facilitate the already-existing jurisdiction of a federal court. See also Fay v. Noia,
See Carbo v. United States,
This is not to dispute that other habeas writs exist, such as the ad prosequendum writ utilized in Carbo, supra and the writ fashioned to obtain petitioner's appearance on appeal in Price v. Johnston,
Ex parte Bollman,
The first modification, in response to South Carolina's nullification ordinance, enabled federal courts to release from state custody persons who had been acting under federal authority. See Force Act of March 2, 1833, c. 57, § 7, 4 Stat. 634-35. Subsequently, the Act of August 29, 1842, c. 257, 5 Stat. 539-40, extended federal habeas to foreign nationals acting under authority of a foreign state. It is noteworthy that, like the earlier Force Act and the later modification in the 1867 Act, the 1842 amendment was prompted by a political crisis the British diplomatic protest to the trial of a Canadian soldier by a New York state court. See People v. McLeod,
See Cong.Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. 87 (1865) (House resolution precipitating Bill No. 605, which became, with slight changes, the Judiciary Act of 1867)
See Cong.Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. 4151 (1866) (House Bill No. 605)
28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)
See Jones v. Cunningham,
See Carafas v. LaVallee,
See Hensley v. Municipal Court,
See Strait v. Laird,
Ingraham v. Wright,
In contrast, we would expect that the present situation, which deals with family concerns to which the entire community is sensitive, would be appropriately dealt with by the state legislatures. See J. Ely, Democracy and Distrust, 73-104 (1980)
In his thoughtful essay on Structure and Relationship in Constitutional Law, Professor Charles Black of the Yale Law School admonishes that federal courts should consider not only the particular textual provision in question (whether statutory or constitutional) but should also ground their reasoning on the structure of the federal union here, on the relationship of federal to state governments. Id. at 3-32 (1969). It certainly is true that the states were assumed to have exclusive jurisdiction in areas such as child welfare. Until Congress acts, then, indicating an intent to intervene via habeas, the federal courts should be hesitant to invade such areas
Moreover, extending habeas removes the res judicata effect of the prior state judgment, a most significant jurisprudential departure, see plurality op. ante at 139, 143-144, constituting an important alteration in state-federal relations.
The district court, in a preliminary order, denied the respondent's contention that Lehman had no standing, and the parties did not raise the issue on appeal. But while Mrs. Lehman has a sufficient personal interest in getting the present habeas relief she seeks, the question whether she is a sufficiently appropriate representative of the other interested parties the children is a difficult one, given the context of overlapping yet potentially conflicting parent and child interests. Not only does the problem deserve to be addressed, but a court of appeals may affirm a district court's decision on a different ground from that assigned by the trial court. See Harold Friedman Inc. v. Thorofare Markets,
Inasmuch as the complaint has asserted no basis for the court's jurisdiction other than 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 and 2254, our standing discussion is necessarily framed by this statutory context. We acknowledge that Mrs. Lehman might well have standing to bring a § 1983 action challenging the constitutionality of the statute on its face and as applied to her, but that is not the question before us. Rather than imposing our views of the merits on Mrs. Lehman, as Judge Gibbons asserts we do, it is Mrs. Lehman who has brought her cause of action in its particular form and accordingly defined the perspective for our standing analysis. In fact, counsel for Mrs. Lehman made it clear at oral argument that the decision to proceed by way of habeas rather than under § 1983 was quite advertent
See Stanley v. Illinois,
The family unit has found protection in the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, see Meyer v. Nebraska,
See Moore v. City of East Cleveland,
Should the children be in state custody against their will, it is even possible that habeas would be an appropriate vehicle for the legal attack
See Quilloin v. Walcott,
See In re Smith,
See Parham v. J. R.,
Unchecked exercise of such a power might ultimately undermine its very basis. Parental authority legitimately proceeds from ties that bind, and might forfeit moral validity and legal protection when it becomes solely the imposition of one will upon another. See Parham v. J. R.,
See Note, Lawyering for the Child: Principles of Representation in Custody and Visitation Disputes Arising from Divorce, 87 Yale L.J. 1126, 1135 n.36 (1978). "(A)s of 1975, 31 jurisdictions appeared to have had statutes establishing the 'best interests of the child' as the standard for divorce custody adjudications."
See Note, supra n.40, at 1127 (24 jurisdictions have implemented legal representation for the child)
The very existence of statutes authorizing state intervention on behalf of neglected and abused children reflects the principle that parental rights are limited by, and occasionally different from, the legitimate interests of their children. See J. R. v. Parham,
See Caban v. Mohammed,
See Wisconsin v. Yoder,
See Smith v. Organization of Foster Families,
See Stanley v. Illinois,
In fact, because the children have articulated a wish not to return, this case approaches the standing dilemma that the Supreme Court declined to answer in Gilmore v. Utah,
One child has been with the same foster family for 10 years now, since he was one year old and he is presently unable to relate emotionally to Mrs. Lehman. See In re William L.,
See J. Goldstein, A. Freud & A. Solnit, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (1973); Cf. Smith v. Organization of Foster Families,
In addition, to justify extending the writ to the parent with the belief that the children could always object, would force the court to demand express opposition from the child before the judiciary will recognize a conflict between the interest of the parent and interest of the child. This is unrealistic from the perspective of common sense as well as the psychologist's understanding of the child's emotional dilemma. Children's loyalties to, and dependencies on, their parents, regardless of overt disagreement and even in the absence of the physical and emotional minima needed by the child, often create an ambivalence which reduces a child to silence. To permit children to bring a habeas petition in state court in the present situation, should they be so motivated, would be legally and psychologically realistic; to allow a parent to petition, absent the child's objections, in a context where emotional conflict often results in silence, would tend toward a misreading of the child's best interest. Burt, Developing Constitutional Rights of, in and for Children, 39 Law & Contemp.Prob. 118, 126-30 (1975)
If federal habeas is permitted in this situation, and res judicata eliminated as a bar, there is nothing to preclude a parent from filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus years after the original separation, and then litigating the constitutional issue completely afresh
The writer of this dissent sat as a member of the panel that initially heard this case. He also sat as a member of the court in banc that subsequently was convened, heard oral argument, and participated in the in banc discussion of the case following oral argument. Thereafter, on January 21, 1981, he took senior status under 28 U.S.C. §§ 371(b) and 294(b)
The division of the court in this case is such that none of the filed opinions represents a majority viewpoint. Two opinions, however, Judge Garth's and Judge Adams', command a plurality. To avoid confusion, I will refer to Judge Garth's opinion as that of "the plurality," because it announces the judgment of the court, and to Judge Adams' opinion as that of "the concurring plurality."
In his concurring plurality opinion, Judge Adams posits Ms. Lehman's alleged lack of standing as one ground for denying jurisdiction in the case at bar. I think it important to emphasize that Judge Adams is not, as I read the opinion, addressing the issue of "standing" in the constitutional sense, which might raise a jurisdictional problem worthy of sua sponte consideration. See concurring op., supra at 151 n.30. Rather, he is concerned that Ms. Lehman may not be the best or even a proper relator in this action. Because I do not consider that issue to affect the question of jurisdiction, I do not address it. I believe that the question of proper representation is a matter to be determined by the district court in pre-trial proceedings, after it has assumed jurisdiction, in the same fashion that representation disputes are determined under the class-action rules. As Judge Garth notes, Garth pl. op., supra at 138 n.3, the standing issue is not properly before us and unless it affects our jurisdictional authority to hear the case, we should not reach conclusions of law on the basis of an undeveloped factual record
Although the plurality characterizes the placement of the children with the Agency as a voluntary surrender of custody, Garth pl. op., supra at 136, the placement was done informally and the parties intended that the custody be only temporary. This certainly is the intent revealed in Ms. Lehman's petition and is supported by the county court's order awarding the Agency temporary custody
The First Circuit relied upon several factors in reaching this conclusion. First, the court found "a long history of state predominance and federal deferral in family law matters."
There is precedent in the common law for the use of the writ of habeas corpus to challenge child custody. "(M)ore than a century ago an English court permitted a parent to use habeas corpus to obtain his children from the other parent, even though the children 'were not under imprisonment, restraint, or duress of any kind.' " Jones v. Cunningham,
The plurality asserts that this statement is incorrect and that the First Circuit rejected the district court's finding that the Sylvander child was in custody for purposes of the statute. Garth pl. op., supra at 142 n.9a. The plurality relies on a lengthy quote from Sylvander which culminates in a holding that "(t)his is not the kind of custody that has traditionally prompted federal courts to assert their jurisdiction in the face of prior state adjudication." See id. I first note that this statement itself recognizes the existence of federal jurisdiction and is addressed only to the propriety of asserting it. Second, I submit that a "fair reading" of the quoted passage in the text accompanying the plurality's note 9a reveals a discussion of policy, not statutory interpretation
I believe that the exercise of section 1983 jurisdiction is significantly more intrusive upon state interests than is federal habeas corpus. The intrusive nature of such an action is demonstrated by the arguments advanced by the plurality. They suggest, as a method for obtaining federal review, that a parent in Ms. Lehman's position reserve her federal claims in the state proceedings so that they may be preserved and asserted in a later section 1983 action in federal court. Garth pl. op., supra at 144-146. The problems with such a procedure, however, are readily apparent
First, such a procedure effectively precludes state courts from addressing federal challenges to state statutes and procedures. This is an important state interest, Preiser v. Rodriguez,
Second, to the extent that parents follow the litigation strategy suggested by the plurality they ensure protracted litigation because state courts would have no opportunity to resolve successfully the federal constitutional claims. Duplicate litigation and expense would therefore be required. Thus, the children's interest in a speedy and final determination of their status, an interest which the plurality recognizes is significant, Garth pl. op., supra at 143-144, will be disserved. The exhaustion requirements of federal habeas corpus, however, require that the parents' federal constitutional claims be addressed, in the first instance, by the state courts. Thus, there is an opportunity, not available under the procedure urged by the plurality, for an early and satisfactory resolution of the federal claims.
See, e. g., Sylvander v. New England Home for Little Wanderers,
The right to family privacy and parental autonomy, as well as the reciprocal liberty interest of parent and child in the familial bond between them, need no greater justification than that they comport with each state's fundamental constitutional commitment to individual freedom and human dignity. But the right of parents to raise their children as they think best, free of coercive intervention, comports as well with each child's biological and psychological need for unthreatened and unbroken continuity of care by his parents. No other animal is for so long a time after birth in so helpless a state that its survival depends upon continuous nurture by an adult. Although breaking or weakening the ties to the responsible and responsive adults may have different consequences for children of different ages, there is little doubt that such breaches in the familial bond will be detrimental to a child's well-being. But "so long as a family is intact, the young child feels parental authority is lodged in a unified body which is a safe and reliable guide for later identification." Court or agency intervention without regard to or over the objection of parents can only serve to undermine the familial bond which is vital to a child's sense of becoming and being an adult in his own right
Goldstein, Medical Care for the Child at Risk: On State Supervention of Parental Autonomy, 86 Yale L.J. 645, 649-50 (1977) (footnotes omitted).
Thus, I cannot agree with the plurality's declaration that the mother alone has an interest here. See Garth pl. op., supra at 142. The children as well have a biological and emotional identification with the natural parent which constitutes a protected and fundamental interest. Furthermore, although the children in this case may have expressed a desire not to be returned to their natural parent, I do not believe that raises a jurisdictional issue. Rather, it would be a matter for the district court's consideration in weighing the merits once jurisdiction is established
The Supreme Court's basis for its constitutional concern with the integrity of the family is set forth in Stanley v. Illinois,
The Court has frequently emphasized the importance of the family. The rights to conceive and to raise one's children have been deemed "essential," Meyer v. Nebraska,
In commenting on the liberty interest inherent in the parent-child relationship, the Court in Meyer v. Nebraska, supra, observed:
The established doctrine is that this liberty may not be interfered with, under the guise of protecting the public interest, by legislative action which is arbitrary without reasonable relation to some purpose within the competency of the State to effect. Determination by the legislature of what constitutes proper exercise of police power is not final or conclusive but is subject to supervision by the courts.
The Seventh Circuit recently observed: "Certainly where a biological relationship exists, the power of the state to regulate activity is limited." Kyees v. County Dep't. of Pub. Welfare,
The court reserved judgment on the vagueness challenge.
In Roe v. Conn,
In this term alone, the Supreme Court has taken action on three cases presenting constitutional challenges to parental rights termination proceedings. Lassiter v. Department of Social Serv., -- U.S. --,
The significant interests protected by the exhaustion requirement are of two types. First, exhaustion preserves the role of the state courts in the application and enforcement of federal law.... Second, exhaustion preserves orderly administration of state judicial business It is important that petitioners reach state appellate courts, which can develop and correct errors of state and federal law and most effectively supervise and impose uniformity on trial courts
Developments in the Law: Federal Habeas Corpus, 83 Harv.L.Rev. 1038, 1094 (1970) (footnote omitted).
Such a holding would be consistent with the established federal policy which affords to the states substantial independence in the regulation of family relationships
Government policy toward the family has traditionally been regarded as presenting local rather than national questions. Generally speaking, "there is no federal law of domestic relations, which is primarily a matter of state concern." But the states' power to legislate and administer family law has never been exempt from constitutional limitations. Restricting state power within constitutional bounds is an appropriate task for the federal judiciary, and carrying out this duty "does not make of (the Supreme) Court a court of probate and divorce." The Court has properly insisted that state intervention respect fundamental human rights.
Developments in the Law: The Constitution and the Family, 93 Harv.L.Rev. 1156, 1159 (1980) (footnotes omitted).
The probable intention of the draftsmen in adding the proviso to section 14 was, I believe, to limit only the power of a single judge or justice conferred in the second sentence. As Judge Adams points out, in Ex parte Dorr,
This is so clear, from the language of the section, that any illustration of it would seem to be unnecessary. The words of the proviso are unambiguous.
The expansions to which the plurality refers, which are codified in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(c), have nothing to do with the question presented here. The children whose custody is sought have never been in jail and never would have fallen within the coverage of the proviso of section 14. Someone seeking to obtain their custody would never have had to rely on the now codified exceptions to the proviso which, beginning with the Force Act of 1833, § 7, 4 Stat. 634-35, Congress gradually adopted. The Judiciary Act of 1867, 14 Stat. 385, to which the concurring opinion devotes so much space, in no way affected the authority conferred in the 1789 statute. Ex parte Yerger,
It thus overruled the Ex parte Dorr construction of the habeas corpus statute. See note 1 supra
In Fay v. Noia, the Supreme Court instructed:
(I)t would appear that the Constitution invites, if it does not compel , a generous construction of the power of the federal courts to dispense the Writ conformably with common-law practice.
Rex v. Clarkson, 1 Str. 444, 93 Eng.Rep. 625 (K.B. 1722)
Id., at 445, 93 Eng.Rep., at 625
Rex v. Delaval, 3 Burr. 1434, 97 Eng.Rep. 913 (K.B. 1763)
Id., at 1437, 97 Eng.Rep., at 914
Earl of Westmeath v. Countess of Westmeath, as set out in a reporter's footnote in Lyons v. Blenkin, 1 Jac. 245, 264, 37 Eng.Rep. 842, 848 (Ch. 1821); accord Ex parte M'Clellan, 1 Dowl. 81 (K.B. 1831)
It should also be noted that Sommersett's Case, 20 How.St.Tr. 1, sub nom. Somerset v. Stewart, 98 Eng.Rep. 499 (1772), in which Lord Mansfield held that slavery did not exist under the common law of England, was a writ of habeas corpus. Certainly disputes over the custody of servants did not fall within the proviso to section 14, and, were they to arise today, would not be governed by section 2241(c)
E. g., Boardman v. Boardman,
This case does not require that we determine whether the exhaustion rule of Ex parte Hawk,
Judge Adams' repeated reference to Ms. Lehman's jurisdictionally deficient complaint ignores 28 U.S.C. § 1653, which provides that "(d)efective allegations of jurisdiction may be amended, upon terms, in the trial or appellate courts." See concurring opinion, at 148 n.7, 149 nn.15, 17 & 151, n.31
It is worthwhile to add that the unconsidered dicta in Barber v. Barber,
The plurality's acknowledgment that Ms. Lehman could get into federal court illustrates the folly of the artificial dichotomy it has attempted to draw between habeas corpus outside the state prisoner context and other exercises of federal judicial power. If we hypothesize that Ms. Lehman, perhaps mindful of the possible trauma caused by a sudden change in custody, were to bring a federal court action seeking in the first instance a declaratory judgment that a child's present custody is unlawful and should be changed, and were to succeed in that action, it would be an incredible suggestion that the court which rendered such a declaratory judgment could not make it effective by resort to the mesne process of habeas corpus authorized by Secs. 1651(a) and 2241(a)
The law of standing to assert federal law claims binds not only the federal courts, but state courts as well. Poe v. Ullman,
Although Judge Adams argues that habeas corpus is not available in this case, in assuming its availability for purposes of his discussion of standing he incorrectly assumes that it is a source of jurisdiction
The recent amendment to § 1738, § 1738A, concerning full faith and credit given to child custody determinations is inapplicable since it deals only with states. Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act of 1980, Pub.L.No. 96-611, § 8,
Section 321 of the Adoption Act provides:
A decree terminating all rights of a parent or a decree terminating all rights and duties of a parent entered by a court of competent jurisdiction shall extinguish the power or the right of such parent to object to or receive notice of adoption proceedings. The decree shall award custody of the child to the agency or the person consenting to accept custody under section 301 or section 302, or the petitioner in the case of a proceeding under section 312. An agency or person receiving custody of a child shall stand in loco parentis to the child and in such capacity shall have the authority, inter alia, to consent to marriage, to enlistment in the armed forces and to major medical, psychiatric and surgical treatment, and to exercise such other authority concerning the child as a natural parent could exercise.
Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. § 321 (Purdon Supp.1979) (footnotes omitted) (repealed and recodified 23 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. Sec. 2521 (Purdon Supp.1981-82))
In Wooley v. Maynard,
The classic example of a judgment having ongoing effects which violate the constitution is, of course, a judgment of sentence under an unconstitutional statute, or obtained in violation of due process. Such an example could not arise in the court of a sister state, but obviously could and did arise when federal courts were asked for relief from the ongoing effects of such a judgment. In Fay v. Noia,
It is perhaps unfortunate that so much emphasis was placed upon the mystique of habeas corpus in Fay v. Noia and so little on a construction of section 1738 which is, or at least should be, compelled by the due process clause of the fifth amendment. Had that broader principle been announced it might have been more difficult for Justice Powell to start down the unfortunate path taken in Stone v. Powell, supra, of selective enforcement of the Bill of Rights.
Pennsylvania law on the preclusive effect of such decrees must be read to include the availability of relief from unconstitutional judgments