Disturbing Supreme Court Split-Verdict: NCPs Facing Jail Time for Arrears Don't Need Lawyers

Last month on June 20th, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a disturbing split verdict in the case of Michael D. Turner, an unemployed South Carolina dad who was repeatedly put in jail for child support arrears although he had no ability to pay his court-ordered support. The case hinged on whether or not an impoverished non-custodial parent has the right to court-appointed legal counsel when facing jail time for arrears.

In its 5-4 split verdict, the court ruled that while it is impermissible to jail poor parents for arrears without giving them a chance to be heard in court, that non-custodial parents facing jail time are not entitled to court appointed legal defenders.

Under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, citizens facing jail time are entitled to court appointed attorneys.

So what was the Supreme Court thinking?

According to Justice Clarence "There's a Pubic Hair in My Coke" Thomas, the Constitution need not apply to non-custodial parents because jail time for child support is not "real" jail time in the sense that it is for criminals. It is "coercive" jail time which arises out of a contempt of court proceeding. Pay no mind to the fact that poor non-custodial parents are jailed in overcrowded prisons with hardcore criminals like murderers and rapists, otherwise one would have to draw a distinction between "criminal" jail time and "coercive" jail time,

Even Justice Breyer ,who wrote a supposedly sympatric majority opinion for non-custodial parents, offered up some strange thoughts on why non-custodial parents shouldn't have lawyers when facing jail time: because that would be unfair to custodial parents without attorneys of their own. Apparently, Breyer doesn't see mighty state child support agencies, police, and family court judges as adequate legal representation for custodial parents.

Family law reform activists might take some satisfaction in the outcome in this case because, on a procedural level, the Supreme Court is saying that better rules must be followed when states seek to jail non-custodial parents. But this victory is somewhat hollow when the Supreme Court leaves wide open the issue of debtors' prisons in general and fails to address non-custodial parents facing political imprisonment over financial debt.

According to an attorney representing non-custodial parents in this case, family court judges in South Carolina alone try about 100 family law cases in a single morning without giving poor non-custodial parents a proper chance to explain their financial situations. And at any given time in just the state of South Carolina, at least 1,500 individuals are in jail for child support arrears (the exact number might be much higher because these are contempt cases, and many courts often throw these statistics in with criminal imprisonments -- isn't that right Justice Thomas?).

So long as there are debtors' prisons and political imprisonment in family law cases, our nation's courts are in direct violation of our Constitution no matter which way some jurists, politicians, and the media might attempt to spin.

Read more about this case at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/politics/21contempt.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=michael%20d.%20turner&st=cse

http://scthenerve.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/court-ruling-spurs-changes-in-child-support-cases/

Media Tries to Hide Ohio Class-Action Lawsuit Against Overpayment

Big money owns big media. And big media only tells you what big money wants you to know. And as big money is ever more for the suppression of human and civil rights, big media will not tell you when people are fighting back against the system.

And so it goes that big mainstream media has been trying to squash a story of very big interest to non-custodial parents: that a class-action lawsuit is underway in the state of Ohio against zealous, overcollection of child support.

A reader recently tipped us off to this story and sent us this link where you can read all about the Ohio lawsuit:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/child-support-overpayments-lawsuit-alleges-state-withholds-too-much-money-unfairly-charging-parents-and-us-taxpayers-121564103.html

In a nutshell: child support agencies in the state of Ohio are collecting from non-custodial parents much more money than is actually owed. These agencies coerce parents to overpay by holding the threat of debtor's prisons over their heads, then they keep the money in state funds without ever informing parents that they actually have credit on their accounts.

Ohio, by the way, is a state which has in recent years found new and dehumanizing ways to collect child support from non-custodial parents such as by distributing wanted posters of non-custodial parents with arrears on pizza boxes. See http://www.ncpforce.com/campaigns/altwanted.html

Now we must all wonder whether any of those poor parents pictured on those boxes actually owed they amounts they were being shaken down for.

All in all, this is a pretty good example of how petty civil servants are allowed to run amok in this country, using the tools provided to them by government to terrorize citizens who ought to be protected from bureaucratic abuses under our Constitution. The combination of civil servants without oversight, Draconian laws, debtor's prisons, and an apathetic media that promotes that hate of non-custodial parents is a toxic combination -- so toxic, in fact, it has already spilled over from the realm of family law to spread harm among the general populace.

The class-action lawsuit is the best line of defense against this trend, which is why it must be used more often. And this is why the mainstream media doesn't want you to know about this story.

Child Support Insanity: $10 Million in Arrears and $100,000 Per Month in Case of PROVEN Paternity Fraud

Casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian has been taken to the cleaners by his ex-wife and Los Angeles County family court which have compelled him to make what is perhaps the largest child support settlement ever – a mind-numbing $10 million in arrears and $100,000 monthly support. And the kicker is, the child is NOT even his own.

The billionaire Kerkorian had been involved in a long-running case with ex-wife Lisa Bonder, a former tennis pro who was married to Kerkorian for only 28 days. Bonder has admitted to the court that she faked a paternity test and it has since been discovered that her child was actually fathered by Hollywood movie producer Stephen Bing. But none of these facts could stop the system from shaking down Kerkorian who is legally recognized as the child's father just because he was married to Bonder.

While Kerkorian may be the ultimate nice guy for settling this case and for never disowning his ex-wife's child (even after learning it was not his true offspring), he has done non-custodial parents in America a disservice by not using all his wealth and resources to challenge an insane system.

Instead, Kerkorian has with head bowed agreed to pay the titanic amounts listed above, PLUS additional perks which did not make headlines. These include expenses such as schooling, equestrian costs, clothing, housing, travel, hobbies, automobile, food, beauty treatments, tutoring, entertainment, parties and pets.

All this sets a pretty high bar for child support for everyone else, and it's easy to see how America's courts will be further encouraged to squeeze every last penny out of average non-custodial parents.

The insanity rages on.

Read more at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39800167/ns/us_news/

Poll Result: Alienated Non-Custodial Parents Deserve Same Respect as Safe Surrender Parents

Our last poll posed the following question:

Non-custodial parents must pay support for children they are not even allowed to see in order to teach "reproductive responsibility". Do you think parents who drop children at safe surrender sites should also be taught "reproductive responsibility"?

Readers of the NCPForce! Blog answered “No – and neither should alienated parents”.
Thanks to those who participated in the poll.

Our latest poll question is: Which political party best represents the interests of non-custodial parents?

To answer the poll, see the polling widget in the upper right corner of our blog page.

Health Care Reform: All Americans Must Now Pay Child Support

Dear America:

A Christmas Eve vote in the U.S. Senate now makes it mandatory for ALL of us to pay child support -- even happily married couples.

This is a tongue in cheek statement of course, not really true ... or is it?

We must be joking, because the only Senate vote in recent days concerned Obama's historic health care reform plan. That decision will compel all Americans to buy substandard health insurance from private insurance companies if it is eventually reconciled with earlier House legislation.

Ah, you didn't hear about this while you were out Christmas shopping? Well, that's exactly what your senators were hoping for, that you'd be distracted, because they wouldn't want ordinary people getting in the way of government for the people, by the people, now would they?

And so, America, you now get to see how it feels to pay child support like every non-custodial parent.

But you have no children, you say? You are happily married you say? Health care has absolutely nothing to do with family law or child support, you say?

Guess again after we give you a few parallels:

As is the case with child support, mandatory health care will place on your back an arbitrary financial responsibility without any regard for your actual income.

Mandatory health care will take away any of your spending choices; you'll never know how your money is being spent and even if you did, and if you disapproved, it wouldn't matter anyway.

Mandatory health care -- if you refuse to pay it, or are unable to pay it -- will make you the subject of numerous legal penalties, including jail time.

Mandatory health care will dominate your life and be a constant source of anxiety. It will affect your credit rating and it will eat away at your freedom to pursue whatever career or whatever line of business you choose to be in, just like child support.

So yes, America, you will be paying child support. Enjoy it!

After all, you've been telling divorced dads and non-custodial parents for years how happy they should be following the dictates of judges and faceless authorities.

Think about this when you are sitting before all-powerful government health panels that will ration your health care and decide whether you live or die. Think about this when your hard-earned money is used to pay for abortions and for illegal aliens. Think about this when you are unable to pay for your substandard policy and are called a "deadbeat". Think about this when you are arrested in the middle of the night, when the authorities decide to roundup those who can't or won't pay.

And from those of us in the fathers' rights/non-custodial parents' rights movement, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Senators who made this all possible. Thank you for showing America what it means to be us! And thank you, America, for letting it happen.

The Organizing Members of NCPForce!

Child Support & Alimony Payments May Have Drove Alleged Letterman Blackmailer

We've heard at NCPForce! that many divorced dads and non-custodial parents are sometimes driven to crime to pay off unrealistic child support debts. It's America's best kept, dirty little secret. And now this reality is exploding into the open thanks to a top celebrity news story.

Recently, a producer at NBC was arrested for allegedly trying to blackmail late night host David Letterman. His possible motive: child support and alimony payments totaling a jaw dropping $6,800 per month!

Read more about this story at Entertainment Tonight.

Conservative Phyllis Schafly Speaks Out for Divorced Dads & NCPS

It's not everyday a conservative speaks out in support of divorced dads and NCPs being ground to pulps by the Bradley Amendment and child support collection agencies.

But back in July, that exactly what conservative columnist Phyllis Schafly did. One of our readers informed us of her column which reads:

"Did you know that a family court can order a man to reimburse the government for the welfare money, falsely labeled "child support," that was paid to the mother of a child to whom he is not related? Did you know that, if he doesn't pay, a judge can sentence him to debtor's prison without ever letting him have a jury trial?
Did you know that debtor's prisons (putting men in prison because they can't pay a debt) were abolished in the United States before we abolished slavery, but that they exist today to punish men who are too poor to pay what is falsely called "child support"?
Did you know that when corporations can't pay their debts, they can take bankruptcy, which means they pay off their debts for pennies on the dollar, but a man can never get an alleged "child support" debt forgiven or reduced, even if he is out of a job, penniless and homeless, medically incapacitated, incarcerated (justly or unjustly) or serving in our Armed Forces overseas, can't afford a lawyer, or never owed the money in the first place?
Did you know that when a woman applying for welfare handouts lies about who the father of her child is, she is never prosecuted for perjury? Did you know that judges can refuse to accept DNA evidence showing that the man she accuses is not the father?
Did you know that alleged "child support" has nothing to do with supporting a child because the mother has no obligation to spend even one dollar of it on a child, and in many cases none of the "support" money ever gets to a child because it goes to fatten the payroll of the child-support bureaucracy?
These are among the injustices the feminists, and their docile liberal male allies, have inflicted on men. The sponsor was former Democratic senator from New Jersey and presidential candidate Bill Bradley."

Read the entire article at World Net Daily.

And thank you Phyllis!