C. v. C. v. Superior Court

Opinion

FRIEDMAN, Acting P. J.

This mandate proceeding poses novel questions as to the rights of prospective adoptive parents whose status is terminated by the placement agency’s demand for the child’s return — whether the due process guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment entitles the prospective parents to pre-termination notice and hearing; whether judicial review entails a de novo decision supported by the weight of the evidence or a narrower inquiry into the agency’s abuse of discretion.

In November 1971 the Sacramento County Department of Social Welfare, a licensed adoption agency, placed…