ABA Journal

Children's Rights

61 ABA Journal Children's Rights articles.

Nation’s first youth climate lawsuits to go to trial

Held v. State of Montana is part of a growing trend in climate-related litigation: shifting away from lawsuits targeting specific fossil fuel projects and toward a bigger-picture approach focusing on fundamental rights and broad violations of public trust.

We ‘live on a pro se planet;’ 5th Circuit allows parents to sometimes represent children without lawyers

A federal appeals court is giving a pro se parent a chance to persuade a federal judge that she may represent her minor children without a lawyer in a federal lawsuit filed against a Texas school district.

Parental Penalties

Parents, like all those returning from prison, face more than 40,000 statutes and regulations nationwide that make reentry into their communities a challenge. Many consequences are imposed indefinitely, impacting the family for the rest of the parent’s life, no matter how long they have been home or how well they reintegrate into society.

Rights Work: UChicago constitutional law course brings together incarcerated youths, law students

The eight-week class is designed to give incarcerated youths an opportunity to consider their rights while exposing the law students to the younger students’ worldview through in-class discussions on topics that include freedom of speech, due process and reproductive freedom, along with weekly mentoring sessions.

Transgender girl can stay on team, for now, after SCOTUS denial; action comes as US proposes new Title IX rule

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to reinstate a West Virginia law that bans transgender athletes from playing on female sports teams.

Taking Sides

Parental alienation happens when one parent engages in behaviors that cause a child to reject the other parent for no legitimate reason. It can become the subject of fierce debate in high-conflict divorce cases when one parent claims the other parent intentionally turned a child against him or her.

Colorado will license paraprofessionals to perform limited legal work

The Colorado Supreme Court has approved a new rule that allows licensed nonlawyer paraprofessionals to perform limited legal work in some divorce and child-custody matters.

Supreme Court sides with deaf student in quest for damages for inadequate education

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a deaf student can pursue damages for an inadequate education under the Americans With Disabilities Act, even though he didn’t exhaust remedies under a federal education law.

Federal judge faces probe after he orders handcuffing of 13-year-old girl in gallery in ‘scared straight’ approach

A federal judge faces an ethics probe initiated by the judiciary after a transcript indicated that he ordered the handcuffing of a 13-year-old girl during a probation revocation hearing for her father. The allegations are against Judge Roger Benitez.

South Carolina laws that prosecute kids for ‘disorderly’ conduct are unconstitutional, 4th Circuit says

A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down two South Carolina laws that punish elementary and secondary school students who act “disorderly,” use “obscene” language or “act in an obnoxious manner” in or near a school.

Examining juvenile crime and punishment in songs

In the years since its initial release, “I Hung My Head” has been covered by both Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen. In fact, if you perform a Google search for the track’s title, it’s Cash’s version that appears first and foremost.

Intersex children should be allowed informed consent on surgeries, ABA House says

Most intersex surgeries are performed on children under the age of 2, according to a report attached to a resolution adopted by the ABA House of Delegates. Some youth would like medical intervention, but others who had it experienced trauma as a result of the choices that were made for them, according to the report.

Protection Services: Meet the lawyers and staff behind the ABA’s work in children’s law

Nearly 45 years after its founding, the ABA Center on Children and the Law has evolved into a midsize nonprofit with nearly 20 staff members who promote access to justice for children and families. The center now helps manage as many as 30 grant projects each year that focus on diverse areas of children’s law, including legal representation; foster care and education; kin and relative caregivers; child, adolescent and parental health; youth engagement; and state and court initiatives.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ actors file child-abuse suit for 1968 nude scene filmed while they were teens

The actors who were teenagers when they portrayed Romeo and Juliet in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet are relying on a California law to sue Paramount Pictures for filming them in the nude.

Meet the two Texas attorneys behind the Children’s Immigration Law Academy

Dalia Castillo-Granados had just begun her fellowship with the St. Frances Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance, a program of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, when she met Yasmin Yavar in 2008.

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