In your honest opinion, are the current child support laws unconstitutional?

SpaceWhiskey · 2016-09-07T21:38:38+00:00

No, they are not unconstitutional and they do not discriminate against gender. Men receive child support from women if the situation calls for it. It's whoever is the non-custodial parent. There are also requirements for using donor sperm/eggs, the women who do are agreeing to be a single parent when they start the process. And all parents are subject to CPS. If a single parent isn't cutting it the government will get involved. Case workers are often involved in single parents situations anyway. The system is not as willy-nilly as you seem to believe.

sublimemongrel · 2016-09-07T20:56:07+00:00

Yes, they are, but it's not so much about sex/gender discrimination as it is about due process and the case law stating that family relationships are deserving of constitutional protection (I cant remember if they rise to the level of a fundamental right or not).

EDIT: Wait, after reading this again, it's hard to make a case that child support laws are unconstitutional unless you're going to tell me more. Most child support laws are based on the payee's income and not actual need. The passage of a law that bears a rational relationship to the interests sought to be protected, together with state action following some deliberation, is probably enough to pass muster. The problems are the interrelationships between child support and how it's used; the lack of checks and accountability for recipients on how it's used; and the failure to condition support on visitation. END edit.

The rationale most federal courts express is that issues pertaining to family rights, child support, and anything having to do with families and kids (other than abortion) are for state courts to deal with; and federal courts just don't want to have to handle those disputes. Federal jurisprudence right now says that child support laws aren't gender discriminatory and don't rise to the level of due process concerns.

Atlas_B_Shruggin · 2016-09-07T21:12:26+00:00

family law courts are courts of equity and arent governed by the constitution in the same way criminal and civil courts are. they apply th eprinciples of equity rather than interprettign and apply th eblack letter law, its an important distinction in terms of how rights are handled

sublimemongrel · 2016-09-07T22:24:14+00:00

No they are not unconstitutional. As u/Atlas_B_Shruggin pointed out, sex discrimination is subject to intermediate scrutiny (not strict scrutiny, which is the highest form of constitutional scrutiny). Hence, so long as the law furthers an "important government interest" using means related to further that interest - even an explicit discriminatory law would pass muster.

Here, the important government interest is the welfare of the child. How could anyone argue that's not an important gov interest? Also, the laws aren't explicitly discriminatory and even arguendo they have a disparate impact you need to show discriminatory intent as well.

Atlas_B_Shruggin · 2016-09-07T21:23:53+00:00

gender or sex discrimination is subject to intermediate scrutiny

"Intermediate scrutiny is a test used in some contexts to determine a law's constitutionality. To pass intermediate scrutiny, the challenged law must further an important government interest by means that are substantially related to that interest."

state enforcement of child support and reimbursement of itself for the custodial parents use of government entitlements can easily be argued to pass this test

Askeiu · 2016-09-07T22:26:02+00:00

There is no compelling state interest in forcing unwilling parents to pay child support in cases where taxpayer money isn't on the line.

So to clarify, if a woman got pregnant and refused to get an abortion, the father should only be forced to provide child support if she cannot afford to support the child herself?

Because that's actually a really interesting idea. I'm currently reevaluating my personal position on child support/financial abortions, and this really caught my interest.

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Title	In your honest opinion, are the current child support laws unconstitutional?
Author	Futurist110
Upvotes	1
Comments	41
Date	September 7, 2016 8:47 PM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/51nh8w/in_your_honest_opinion_are_the_current_child/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/in-your-honest-opinion-are-the-current-child.273157 https://theredarchive.com/post/273157

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