Adoption of C.D.M. v. Maxwell

OPALA, J.,

with whom HARGRAVE, C.J. and LAVENDER, J., join, dissenting.

11 The court holds today that neither a father's incarceration nor his previous court-ordered bar of visitation will provide a defense against a mother's complaint of his wiliful failure to maintain a relationship with his child, a ruling which, pursuant to the terms of 10 O.S. Supp.1998 § 7505-4.2 (H),1 may result in the nonconsensual termination of paternal status. Today's pronouncement is fraught with state and federal constitutional infirmities. Insofar as the court's ruling deprives the father of his interposed defense…