A judge’s race or gender makes for a dramatic difference in the outcome of cases they hear—at least for cases in which race and gender allegedly play a role in the conduct of the parties, according to two recent studies.

The results were the focus of a program about “Diversity on the Bench: Is the ‘Wise Latina’ a Myth?,” sponsored by the ABA Judicial Division at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Orlando on Saturday afternoon. (ABAJOURNAL.COM; http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/article/race_gender_of_judges_make_enormous_differences_in_rulings_studies_find_aba; Feb. 6, 2010)

MYTH OF THE COLOR-BLIND JUDGE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF RACIAL HARASSMENT CASES (PAT K. CHEW, ROBERT E. KELLEY; WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW; VOL. 86:1117- 1166)

Above Report Last Available Online From: http://lawreview.wustl.edu/inprint/86/5/kelley.pdf

FEMALE JUDGES MATTER: Gender and Collegial Decision-making in the Federal Appellate Courts (Jennifer L. Peresie; The Yale Law Journal; VOL. 114: 1759-1790)

Above Report Last Available Online From: http://www.yalelawjournal.org/images/pdfs/211.pdf

Regardless of the level of interest in the issues of judicial impartiality, judicial accountability, or judicial reform ~ the studies at hand bring a fresh reminder that we are more and more becoming a nation of men rather than a nation of laws contrary to what our system was founded upon. Not diversity, subjective determinations, and the whims of personalities or circumstance but with critical thinking and an objective standard founded within our Constitution.

Columbus, OH — An Ohio lawmaker has re-introduced legislation that would include a father’s rights in the abortion decision-making process. Under Roe v. Wade, fathers are left out of the equation when a woman considers whether or not to have an abortion that would end the life of their child.

Rep. John Adams, a Republican from Sidney, wants to change that and the legislation he introduced today, House Bill 252, would require the biological father’s consent before an abortion can be done.

The bill would apply to any abortion and would require written consent before it can be done. (Source: LifeNews.Com; July 17, 2009)

After reviewing the entire bill at the Ohio State Legislature website earlier today, it would appear that any person that violates the provisions of the law, if passed, would be guilty of abortion fraud, a misdeameanor of the first degree. However, if the person previously has pleaded guily or has been convicted of a violation of the new law, if passed, would be guilty of abortion fraud classified as a fifth degree felony.

Technically speaking the proposed legislation also would require a pregnant woman to know who the father is, promoting more responsible behavior on everyone’s part, which is a proper move in the right direction. Why? Because it would not be a defense for a mother to simply “not know who the father is.”

Our country is suffering financially and morally as a result of abortions, divorce, separation, child custody disputes, and child support cases. It is high-time to put more emphasis on the cases before they get to the stage of clogging up our court systems nationwide. Stop rewarding for all the negative behavior and start emphasizing positive shifts in public policies affecting the families toward greater responsibility and care for the children that are being born today.

Parental rights and parent-child relationships can be better protected when both parents are required to make decisions about the care, upbringing, and education of their children. Part of that responsibility for the care of our children, certainly begins before the birth.

The Associated Press released an article titled Report: child-welfare workers falsified data claiming an astounding “More than 70 Florida child-welfare workers falsified records in the last two years, leaving 14 children in unsafe homes and causing the state Department of Children and Families to temporarily lose track of at least six other children, a newspaper reported Sunday.” (Orlando Sentinel; Report: Fla. Child-Welfare Workers Falsified Data; July 12, 2009) The report was not named, although we are looking into further information to see the extent of the information that was not reported in the mainstream about this case.

The connection in last month’s coverage involving a 7-year old’s alleged suicide while in foster care was not referenced in the current article. The newspare referenced some apparent sections in the report discussing some of the issues it had discovered, including one reference “Police discovered four foster children living in tents in a yard of a Wildwood house with no running water, food or clean clothing, the day after a caseworker reported she had inspected the home.”

Often times if a potential litigant is signs their name to a falsified government document they can be prosecuted for some serious crimes. In some cases of ommissions or falsification it can lead to serious indictments, like on a bankruptcy petition under Title 18, U.S.C. 152(3). Nearly every official document, a citizen can be held guilty of perjury or other crimes.

The Orlando Sentinel did not go into great detail as to what happened to the offending government bureaucrats, but they generally stated “Half the caseworkers who falsified records in 2007 and 2008 were DCF employees, while the others worked for private contractors hired by the agency to supervise child-safety cases. Nearly half were prosecuted, according to state and court records. Almost all were fired or quit.”

We questioned one attorney on their thoughts of government falsification of documents and he indicated that similar to police officers that are offending in various degrees it can collectively affect cases involving criminal actions and generally indicated that the issues should be brought to the media for public consumption and scrutiny.

In the case at hand, we applaud the limited coverage in the Orlando Sentinel, and hope that they elaborate to the public to ensure that none of the offenders are under government or tax-payer employ again.

We are looking forward to other reports across the nation to reflect similar findings and will be sure to report them as updates to this and upcoming stories.

An interesting series of articles have come about in the past week, and that raises a question “Should IQ Tests be implemented to determine ability to parent?”

Some things that are not taken into account with the question are, which test should be used to determine one’s intelligence, what if the targeted parent has sufficient family and network support to effectively parent, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. The questions go on before we allow government intervention on a precautionary “what-if” basis.

Now this type of mentality hasn’t hit the United States Courts in full-stream yet, but it is happening in other parts of the world. In a UK Publication, How dare they say I’m too dumb to be a mum: Defiant mother speaks out after courts rule she’s ‘too stupid’ to care for her child (MailOnline: June 5, 2009), the article quotes the mother and her child as follows:

‘Every time I see my daughter, she says “Mummy, why can’t I come home with you?” and I have to tell her: “I would really love to take you home, but if I do a policeman will come along and take you away and arrest me,”‘ says Rachel, 24.

In the same UK Article it states that:

Nottingham Social Services have decided that Rachel – who cannot be named in full for legal reasons – lacks the intelligence and parenting skills to bring up her own child. In short, as this week’s news reports sensationally revealed, she has been judged ‘too stupid’ to be a good mother.

The same story seems to be permeating other parts of the world, including the US, and it should be watched closely to ensure that government isn’t inviting itself into the parenting styles of every citizen. We will keep you posted as we think this has a significant on the parental rights of parents that have not committed any crimes.

The fight broke out at a home on the 200 block of Bodfish Canyon Road in Bodfish. Crystal Lee Parker, 29, lives at the home and had armed herself with a large knife after people arrived because of the child-custody dispute, according to the sheriff’s office.

A Kernville man died Monday night after allegedly being stabbed during a child-custody dispute. (Bakersfield Now Eye Witness News; Kernville man dies after stabbing in child-custody dispute; May 26, 2009; Orig.)

Family Court related violence is becoming more prevalent throughout the country as spouses aim to kill one another rather than go to trial. This isn’t the first time that family court turns out to be deadly business either, just take a look at this article that continues to mount evidence against an adversarial court system that is proven bad for families. Family Court is Deadly Business.

Get Your Justice Live, an online interactive talk show discussing issues relating to government policies affecting the family, encourages diversion programs to remove a significant portion of cases from the judicial docket, staying the cases, and moving them to pilot programs focusing on alternative dispute resolution. A free seminar, “Save Our Kids“, promotes a viable alternative to the adversarial family court system with the ADR method known as Collaborative Law. With a reduction in the bloated judicial dockets, judicial resources will be free to deal more intimately with the high-conflict family court cases before they escalate to critically dysfunctional levels that drive people to destructive acts against other family members.