Loyola University Chicago, School of Law LAW eCommons Faculty Publications & Other Works 2000 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara: Contemporary Lessons in the Child Welfare Wars Bruce A. Boyer Loyola University Chicago, School of Law,
[email protected] Steven Lubet Follow this and additional works at: http://lawecommons.luc.edu/facpubs Part of the Family Law Commons, and the Juvenile Law Commons Recommended Citation Boyer, Bruce A, and Lubet, Steven, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara: Contemporary Lessons in the Child Welfare Wars, 45 Vill. L. Rev. 245 (2000) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by LAW eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications & Other Works by an authorized administrator of LAW eCommons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 2000] Article THE KIDNAPPING OF EDGARDO MORTARA: CONTEMPORARY LESSONS IN THE CHILD WELFARE WARS BRUCE A. BOYER* STEVEN LUBET** I. INTRODUCTION IN recent years, with increasing regularity, legal scholars and other com- mentators have called for changes in the legal systems and rules that govern child welfare.' Much of this discourse has been driven by a series of wrenching custody cases, in which judges have been called upon to bal- ance the claims of biological parents against those of third parties who have established durable attachments with children in their care. Under- standably, public opinion almost invariably supports the "de facto" or "psy- chological" parents, on the ground that it would do enormous harm to remove young children from a nurturing home. At the same time, claims of birth parents tend to be discounted as rigid formalities-mere proce- dural rights of adults that should not be allowed to interfere with the obvi- ous and unarguable interests of the children.