Elizabeth Morgan Act

Last updated

The Elizabeth Morgan Act is an act of the 104th United States Congress that was declared unconstitutional in 2003 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia as being a bill of attainder, because it was written to deny rights to a specific father based on his child's own assertion. [1] [2] It was originally introduced as H.R. 1855, by Rep. Thomas M. Davis. It was passed as a rider of the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997 (H.R. 3675, Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  104–205 (text) (PDF)).

Contents

Background

In 1985 Washington, DC plastic surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Morgan accused her ex-husband, dentist Dr. Eric Foretich, of sexually abusing their daughter Hilary, then two years old. Morgan, who had primary custody of the child, then attempted to have Foretich's visitation rights revoked. After a police investigation was unable to substantiate Morgan's claims, a judge ordered her to allow the child to visit her father without supervision. When Morgan refused to do so, she was held in contempt of court and was indefinitely detained in August 1987. While in jail, Morgan refused to reveal the whereabouts of her daughter, who was living with Morgan's parents in New Zealand. [3] [4] [5]

In 1989, Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia introduced the bill that became the District of Columbia Civil Contempt Imprisonment Limitation Act (H.R. 2136, Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  101–97). That legislation removed the provision of District of Columbia law that permitted indefinite detention for civil contempt. [6] While the bill did not mention Morgan or Foretich by name, its authors admitted that it was specifically intended to free Morgan from jail. [5] After being detained for 25 months, Morgan was released from jail shortly after the act was passed into law in September 1989, and subsequently moved to New Zealand to join her parents and her daughter. [4]

Wolf again involved himself in the case when he co-sponsored the 1996 rider bill that became the Elizabeth Morgan Act. [4] The new law was narrowly worded to apply to the circumstances of Morgan's daughter, allowing the child in those circumstances to refuse consent to custody or visitation by her father, and preventing the District of Columbia courts from issuing custody or visitation orders or sanctions against Morgan. Having the protection of the 1996 Congressional act, Morgan and her daughter then returned to the United States. [2]

The father, Dr. Eric Foretich, sued against the effect of the act in 1997. On December 16, 2003, the act was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, who ruled that the law was so narrowly written that it targeted Foretich and treated him as a danger to his child without formal charges, illegally punishing him. [2] [7] The law was moot and had no practical effect on the daughter, who was by then 21 and could choose for herself whether or not to see her father. [4] [7] [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the court. A similar attitude toward a legislative body is termed contempt of Parliament or contempt of Congress. The verb for "to commit contempt" is contemn and a person guilty of this is a contemnor or contemner.

Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1 (2004), was a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit, originally filed as Newdow v. United States Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et al. in 2000, led to a 2002 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are an endorsement of religion and therefore violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The words had been added by a 1954 act of Congress that changed the phrase "one nation indivisible" into "one nation under God, indivisible". After an initial decision striking the congressionally added "under God", the superseding opinion on denial of rehearing en banc was more limited, holding that compelled recitation of the language by school teachers to students was invalid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Service-Members' Protection Act</span> US federal law

The American Service-Members' Protection Act, known informally as the Hague Invasion Act, is a United States federal law described as "a bill to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party." The text of the Act has been codified as subchapter II of chapter 81 of title 22, United States Code.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Brown (judge)</span> American judge

Joseph Blakeney Brown Jr., known professionally as Judge Joe Brown, is an American former lawyer and television personality. He is a former Shelby County, Tennessee Criminal Court judge and a former arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe Brown.

The Palm Sunday Compromise, formally known as the Act for the relief of the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo, is an Act of Congress passed on March 21, 2005, to allow the case of Terri Schiavo to be moved into a federal court. The name "Palm Sunday Compromise" was coined by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, referring to it having been passed on Palm Sunday.

In family law, contact, visitation and access are synonym terms that denotes the time that a child spends with the noncustodial parent, according to an agreed or court specified parenting schedule. The visitation term is not used in a shared parenting arrangement where both parents have joint physical custody.

Reporter's privilege in the United States, is a "reporter's protection under constitutional or statutory law, from being compelled to testify about confidential information or sources." It may be described in the US as the qualified (limited) First Amendment or statutory right many jurisdictions have given to journalists in protecting their confidential sources from discovery.

Paul Redmond Michel is a retired United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and a former Chief Judge of that court.

The fathers' rights movement in the United States is a group that provides fathers with education, support and advocacy on family law issues of child custody, access, child support, domestic violence and child abuse. Members protest what they see as evidence of gender bias against fathers in the branches and departments of various governments, including the family courts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">113th United States Congress</span> 2013–2015 legislative term

The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Barack Obama's presidency. It was composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives based on the results of the 2012 Senate elections and the 2012 House elections. The seats in the House were apportioned based on the 2010 United States census. It first met in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2013, and it ended on January 3, 2015. Senators elected to regular terms in 2008 were in the last two years of those terms during this Congress.

A noncustodial parent is a parent who does not have physical custody of his or her minor child as the result of a court order. When the child lives with only one parent, in a sole custody arrangement, then the parent with which the child lives is the custodial parent while the other parent is the non-custodial parent. The non-custodial parent may have contact or visitation rights. In a shared parenting arrangement, where the child lives an equal or approximately equal amount of time with the mother and father, both are custodial parents and neither is a non-custodial parent.

A parenting coordinator (PC) is a court-appointed professional psychologist or lawyer who manages ongoing issues in high-conflict child custody and visitation cases.

Daniel J. Kremer is a former Presiding Justice of the California Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One, having been appointed to the post by Republican Governor George Deukmejian in 1985.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 is a United States federal law which, among other things, specified the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense. The bill passed the U.S. House on December 14, 2011 and passed the U.S. Senate on December 15, 2011. It was signed into law on December 31, 2011 by President Barack Obama.

A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story is a 1992 television film directed by Linda Otto. Starring Bonnie Bedelia in the title role, the courtroom drama—which has also been released as Shattered Silence—chronicles the story behind the Elizabeth Morgan case, in which a woman suspected her ex-husband was sexually abusing their three year old daughter. After Morgan's ex-husband was cleared of suspicion by police, and a judge ordered unsupervised visitation rights be returned to him, Morgan refused to reveal the location of the child. Morgan was subsequently held in contempt of court and imprisoned for more than two years, until an act of congress was written and passed specifically to free her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kilah Davenport Child Protection Act of 2013</span> Child Protection Act

The Kilah Davenport Child Protection Act of 2013 is a law that broadens the coverage of current laws that address domestic assaults by certain repeat offenders. The law also requires the United States Department of Justice to write a report on child abuse prevention laws in all U.S. states and territories, "with a particular focus on penalties for cases of severe child abuse."

Kimberly Jean Davis is an American former county clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, who gained international attention in August 2015 when she defied a U.S. federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

<i>Miller v. Davis</i>

Miller v. Davis is a federal lawsuit in the United States regarding the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. After the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide on June 26, 2015, the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, Kim Davis, refused to issue marriage licenses to any couple to avoid issuing them to same-sex couples, citing her religious beliefs. She also refused to allow her deputies to issue the licenses, as they would still bear her title and name.

In the Best Interest of the Child is a 1990 American made-for-television drama film about child sexual abuse starring Meg Tilly, Ed Begley Jr., Michael O'Keefe and Michele Greene, directed by David Greene. It was originally broadcast on CBS on May 20, 1990.

Chafin v. Chafin, 568 U.S. 165 (2013), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held the appeal of a district court's decision to return a child to his country of residence is not precluded by the child's departure from the United States. It arose from the divorce proceedings of Mr. and Ms. Chafin; she wanted their daughter to live with her in Scotland, while he wanted her to remain in the United States with him.

References

  1. Doris R. Foretich, et al. v. United States, 351 F.3d 1198 (D.C.App. 2003)
  2. 1 2 3 Leonning, Carol D. (December 17, 2003). "Appeals Court Rules Against Morgan Law". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  3. 1 2 Carbone, June (June 1, 2007). "Family Law Armageddon: The Story of Morgan v. Foretich" . Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Court strikes down law passed for mother who hid daughter". CNN . Associated Press. December 16, 2003. Archived from the original on December 3, 2007. Retrieved Jun 4, 2004.
  5. 1 2 Barringer, Felicity (September 26, 1989). "Prison Releases a Defiant Mother". Professor Timothy M. Hagle, Department of Political Science, The University of Iowa. The New York Times. p. A18. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2007.
  6. H. Rpt. 101-98, Report to Accompany H.R. 2136, p.3
  7. 1 2 Henry, Emily (February 4, 2009), "Morgan vs. Foretich Twenty Years Later", LA Weekly , Los Angeles, archived from the original on 2016-06-11, retrieved 2022-12-20
  8. "Elizabeth Morgan Act and Legislating Family Values". JONATHAN TURLEY. 2007-11-20. Retrieved 2023-03-14.