In 1979, President Jimmy Carter, at the behest of Congress, proclaimed the first Sunday following Labor Day National Grandparents Day. In his written proclamation, Carter wrote that grandparents “are our continuing tie to the near-past” and “fill some of the gaps in our mobile society.” Just the year before, Connecticut expanded its grandparent visitation statute, Connecticut General Statutes 46b-59, to apply to cases where parents were separated, but not divorced, or who had never married. Since that time, every state has enacted legislation to provide for grandparent (and, in some states, great-grandparent) visitation and “grandparents’ rights” organizations have proliferated across the country.
In recent history, however, grandparents’ entitlement to see their grandchildren (and vice versa) has become practically non-existent. A unanimous Connecticut House and Senate this year passed Bill 5440, “An Act Concerning Visitation Rights for Grandparents and Other Persons.” The act, which became effective Oct. 1, 2012, partially repeals and modifies Section 46b-59 and erects jurisdictional hurdles to grandparent (and third party) visitation that will be nearly impossible to clear. The new law codifies the judicial gloss added to Section 46b-59 by Roth v. Weston, 259 Conn. 202 (2002), which followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s lead in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000). Troxel provides that third-party visitation rights are limited by fit parents’ constitutional right to raise their children free of state interference.
