ABSTRACT
Constitutional law holds that the rights of parents to raise their children in a manner they see t constitutes “family privacy” (Lochner v. New York 1905). is suggests that the law allows great latitude to parental actions or inaction toward their children. However, parental rights are not innite. In the U.S. Supreme Court case of Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1944), the court stated, “the state, as parens patriae, has a wide range of power for limiting parental freedom and authority in things aecting the child’s welfare.” In Roe v. Wade (1973) the court pointed out that when the state intrudes upon a fundamental protected right (family privacy and parental rights), strict scrutiny must be observed by the court. Such a high level of review is mandated to ensure that fundamental constitutional rights have not been abridged.
