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Rubano v. DiCenzo9/25/2000
esponsibility with DiCenzo's child somehow trumps DiCenzo's objections to Rubano's visitation. However, the Supreme Court's statement was referring to the fact that a mere biological relationship, without more, does not support that parent's claim that he or she has a substantive due process right to maintain a parental relationship. Here, the biological parent, DiCenzo, has a fully developed relationship with her child; therefore, Lehr is not relevant and serves merely to confuse the issue.
Let us consider the implications of the majority's leap to confer jurisdiction upon the Family Court to entertain a petition for visitation by a person who neither has an adoptive nor blood relationship to the child (such as grandparent) based solely upon a prior homosexual relationship with the biological mother. Let us suppose that a man who was not the biological father of a child engaged in a heterosexual relationship with the unmarried mother of such a child. Let us further suppose that this man, the mother, and the child lived together for a period of years as a family unit. During that time, the live-in boyfriend contributed to the support of the child and assumed some of the duties of parenting. Nevertheless, he did not marry the child's mother and did not adopt the child. Would the majority give to this heterosexual partner the right to petition for visitation after the heterosexual relationship had been dissolved? In the event that the biological mother was not unfit and objected to this visitation because she had entered into a new relationship with another partner, would the Family Court have jurisdiction to entertain such a petition?
Conclusion
For the reasons stated, the Chief Justice and I concur with the majority in answering certified question No. I in the negative; we dissent from the majority in our answers to certified questions No. II and No. III. We would answer certified question No. II in the negative, and we would answer certified question No. III in the negative.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Rhode Island Personal Injury Attorneys
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