Walker v. Blair

Opinion of the Court by

Chief Justice MINTON.

The United States Supreme Court in Troxel v. Granville1 addressed the federal constitutional implications of state statutes that allow courts to grant non-parent visitation with children over parental objections. A majority of that Court recognized that parents have a constitutionally protected liberty interest in rearing their children without government interference. To protect this liberty interest, courts must give appropriate weight in non-parent visitation proceedings to the parents’ decision to deny visitation.

We accepted discretionary review…