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69 La. L. Rev. 927 (2008-2009)
The Troxel Aftermath: A Proposed Solution for State Courts and Legislatures

handle is hein.journals/louilr69 and id is 935 raw text is: The Troxel Aftermath: A Proposed Solution for State Courts and Legislatures Sonya C. Garza* I. THE DEBATE OVER THE FEDERALIZATION OF FAMILY LAW One of the biggest controversies in family law today stems from the lack of uniformity in laws across jurisdictions. Most people assume there has always been a lack of involvement in family law by the federal courts. Prior to the advent of modem family law statutes, the U.S. Supreme Court stated the whole subject of domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the States and not to the laws of the United States.1 However, without the federal government's role in the regulation of the family,'2 family law would not exist as it does today. Only recently have scholars started to discuss the impact of federal law in shaping the development of family law. Historically, all branches of the federal government were actively engaged in creating and enforcing laws that bore directly on families, often using uniform federal standards to do so. For example, a pension program for the survivors of Revolutionary War veterans required rules on who could qualify as a spouse or child of the deceased veteran. In addition, the idea of state sovereignty has often been used as a theory of convenience, strategically invoked and easily dismissed or ignored in an effort to allow the federal government more flexibility to enter into the realm of family law at its discretion.5 As Susan Collins points out, in the women's suffrage campaign, polygamy, liberalized divorce laws, and interracial marriage attracted national attention as Copyright 2009, by SONYA C. GARZA. * Associate Professor of Law, New England School of Law. J.D. Stanford Law School, 2000. B.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 1997. I would like to thank Adrianne Pusateri Ramos and Abigail Ross for their tireless research. This Article is dedicated to my niece and nephews-Isabel, Jack, and Nate. You are the most loved grandchildren. 1. Exparte Burrus, 136 U.S. 586, 593-94 (1890). 2. Kristin A. Collins, Federalism's Fallacy: The Early Tradition of Federal Family Law and the Invention of States' Rights, 26 CARDOZO L. REv. 1761, 1765 (2005). 3. Id. at 1767. 4. Id. at 1782. 5. Id. at 1768.