Fresh Attack on Parental Rights

From parentalrights.org

We are very excited about the progress we are seeing in Washington as a result of your calls. Just yesterday, Rep. LoBiondo contacted Congressman Hoekstra to become the 119th cosponsor (including Hoekstra) of H.J. Res. 42 (the Parental Rights Amendment in the House), the first from the state of New Jersey. Last week, we added Congressman Young of Alaska as well.

Relative to that, it appears that the CRC’s bid for ratification is stalled in the executive and legislative branches (at least for the moment) – so its proponents are trying to legislate it through the judicial branch instead.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases this term which challenge the authority of the state of Florida to sentence minors to life without parole for extremely violent crimes. Amnesty International (AI) has filed briefs in both cases arguing that the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is binding on the United States as a matter of Customary International Law. While these cases do not involve parental rights, adoption of the CRC as Customary International Law would certainly be a blow to parental rights in America.

ParentalRights.org president Michael Farris has written an opposing brief, submitted to the Supreme Court by 16 members of the House of Representatives, explaining why the AI brief’s assertions are false, and why the CRC should not be applied to American law without full ratification. You can read our press release here. Not surprisingly, 15 of the 16 Congressmen who submitted this brief are also cosponsors of H.J. Res. 42 (the Parental Rights Amendment), and the 16th has vowed to vote “Yes.”

The fact is, despite all our hard work, the threat has not gone away. Should the Supreme Court find the CRC binding on U.S. states as Customary International Law, our job will get a whole lot tougher. As John Adams once wrote, “Liberty once lost is lost forever.” That’s why we need to keep pushing to pass the Parental Rights Amendment before those rights can be taken away.
Please, although you’ve already called before, we urge you to call Congress again today. The race is on to preserve parental rights in America. Let’s get your Congressman and Senators on board before this week is out!

Find your Congressman’s and Senators’ contact info by clicking on your state at our States Watch page.