Jones v. McDowell

WELLS, Judge.

The initial question to be determined in this appeal is whether respondents have a constitutionally protected liberty or privacy interest in retaining Trenda Junae McDowell’s surname, of which they cannot be deprived without due process of law. 1 The Supreme Court of the United States has held in a number of recent cases that the “freedom of personal choice in matters of . . . family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Smith v. Organization of Foster Families, 431 U.S. 816, 842, 97 S.Ct. 2094, 2108, 53 L.Ed. 2d 14, 33…