Dear hmbradley-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.
Just to recap the disclaimer, let me say this so we?ll both know where we stand:
?Answers and comments provided on Google Answers are general
information, and are not intended to substitute for informed
professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal,
investment, accounting, or other professional advice.? What I am
providing you with is a matter of published law and not professional
legal advice:
Now, with that out of the way in response to your question ?Do I have
the legal right to decide who interacts with my children, family or
not??, the answer is without a doubt, ABSOLUTELY ? provided you and
your spouse are united in your objections to the visitation.
This is not a universal rule in all states, but as it happens, in
Virginia married parents can exclude others from visitation based upon
their right to raise their family in private and in their own manner.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled in ?Williams v Williams? (June 05,
1998) that (and I paraphrase here) in a dispute between the parents of
a child in an intact family unit and the child?s biological
grandparents, where there is no evidence of parental abuse or neglect,
the parents are respected members of the community in which they live,
they are mentally, physically, and morally fit, and are capable of
meeting their daughter's financial, educational, moral, and social
needs, that the child's grandparents have no right to visitation over
parental objection.
?The parents asserted that Code Section 20-124.2(B), as it pertains to
nonparent visitation, interferes with their right to autonomy in child
rearing and, hence, violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution.?
?The Court of Appeals held there is no constitutional problem in the
applicable statutes. In so ruling, the appellate court concluded that
the right of parents in raising their child is a fundamental right
protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Williams v. Williams, 24 Va.
App. 778, 783, 485 S.E.2d 651, 654 (1997). The Court of Appeals
further decided that state interference with a fundamental right must
be justified by a compelling state interest, and that to constitute a
compelling interest, "state interference with a parent's right to
raise his or her child must be for the purpose of protecting the
child's health or welfare."
??the Court of Appeals said, "For the constitutional requirement to be
satisfied, before visitation can be ordered over the objection of the
child's parents, a court must find an actual harm to the child's
health or welfare without such visitation."
?Thus, only if Code Section 20-124.2(B) is construed without giving
any effect to the limiting language of Code Section 20-124.1, would
the court have had statutory authority to award visitation to the
grandparents under the specific circumstances of this case, where two
fit parents are united in their objections to that visitation.
However, the limiting language of Code Section 20-124.1 suggests that
the legislature intended to limit the right of grandparents, and other
parties with a legitimate interest, to seek visitation only when that
issue would otherwise be properly before the court and not when the
grandchild is in the custody of two fit, natural parents in an intact
marriage who are united in their objections to visitation by the
grandparents.?
WILLIAMS v WILLIAMS
http://www.parentsrights.org/states/va/va6598.htm
So, clearly, if you do not want your child?s grandparents to visit
with your child then you are, using this precedent as support for you
position, legally entitled say NO if you and your spouse are both
united (both of you agree) in your objection. This of course is
related to a situation where the grandparents are ?fit? and there are
no other real objections like those related to the safety of the child
or the mental capacity of the grandparents, so your would seem to have
an even greater impact and admissibility given the circumstances you
described.
Even if you and your spouse are not united in your objection, it seems
that you may still have a valid legal foundation for your sole
objection pursuant to Code of Virginia Section 16.1-278.15 if the
matter were taken to court ? that the child would be endangered. In a
custodial matter the court considers, among other things:
?F. In any case or proceeding involving the custody or visitation of a
child, the court shall consider the best interest of the child,
including the considerations for determining custody and visitation
set forth in Chapter 6.1 (§ 20-124.1 et seq.) of Title 20.?
?G. In any proceeding before the court for custody or visitation of a
child, the court may order a custody or a psychological evaluation of
any parent, guardian, legal custodian or person standing in loco
parentis to the child, if the court finds such evaluation would assist
it in its determination. The court may enter such orders as it deems
appropriate for the payment of the costs of the evaluation by the
parties.?
?H. When deemed appropriate by the court in any custody or visitation
matter, the court may order drug testing [this presumably includes
alcohol testing] of any parent, guardian, legal custodian or person
standing in loco parentis to the child. The court may enter such
orders as it deems appropriate for the payment of the costs of the
testing by the parties.?
If it came down to it, the court would chemically test, evaluate and
interview the grandparents and the issues you mentioned would most
likely preclude them, per your objections, which the court would
probably find reasonable, from visitation based on their habitual
substance abuse and potentially dangerous influence you allege.
CODE OF VIRGINIA SECTION 16.1-278.15
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+16.1-278.15
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