HB23-1026 provides that a grandparent may overcome the presumption that any parental determination regarding “family time” is in the “best interests of the child” during a custody case, allowing a court to appoint a child’s legal representative.
The House passed HB23-1026 on April 26, 2023, by a vote of 51 to 13. We have assigned pluses to the noes because final decision-making authority over the upbringing and care of a child belongs to the child’s parents—not their grandparents, the government, or anyone else. No law-abiding custodial parent should ever be compelled to relinquish their child under threat of the full weight and force of the judicial system. Opponents of traditional marriage and the family are also working tirelessly in each of the several States to proceed beyond “no-fault divorce” by advocating for “equal-shared parenting” and similar “best interests of the child” legislation that seeks to rewrite U.S. family law entirely, being modeled after the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. If these efforts are not opposed, they will have severe long-lasting consequences for parental rights in America. Colorado officials must stand firm against this intrusion. Parental rights, as with all other fundamental rights, are protected by the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment. Article VI, Section 2, of the Constitution notably requires that “Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”