Familial disputes can cause deep-seated divisions among relatives. Such disagreements can occur during a divorce, but they can also trouble an otherwise married and happy New Jersey family. Parents may decide to preclude family members, including their own parents, from seeing their children. The question then becomes what rights grandparents have to seek visitation when they are shut out from their grandchildren.

That issue was at play in a state case that was appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The Court, however, recently turned down the case. The Supreme Court last addressed the topic in 2000, but failed to articulate well-defined guidelines at that time. Some had hoped that a decision in the current case would resolve lingering ambiguities in the law of grandparent visitation rights.

The parents in the state case were happily married with two children. They got along well with the father’s parents until an argument over business affairs created enmity between the family and the grandparents, who were prohibited from visiting their grandchildren. They brought a lawsuit for visitation under their state’s laws. Although they won the suit initially, two subsequent appellate courts ruled against them. Then they sought the help of the Supreme Court.

In ruling for the parents’ rights to determine who shall see their children, the state Supreme Court said that parents must be found “unfit” before a judge can order that another person be allowed to see the children. Not all states apply this parent-friendly standard, however. Some states make it easier for grandparents to obtain visitation rights by requiring that they prove their visitation would be in the child’s best interests.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor, “Do grandparents get visitation rights? Supreme Court declines case,” Warren Richey, Feb. 21, 2012.