Child Liberty Doctrine

State interference with the parent-child relationship is often framed as a "parental rights" issue.

The same issue could also be framed as one of state interference with the right of a child.

Courts have noted that children have a concomitant fundamental right to the state of well-being which derives from "'the continuity of affectionate care from those to whom [they are] attached through bonds of love."' See Roe v. Conn, Alabama Middle Federal District Court 1976.

"A prior and fundamental right of a parent to rear his child; and concomitantly, of the right of the child to be reared by his natural parent”;

The right described in Roe is sometimes called the Child Liberty Doctrine, for it is a right describing a child's right to be free from harmful and arbitrary state confinement.

Also see children have right to freedom of associations in Webster v. Ryan of the NY Family Court 2001, often quoted by the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals.