| Abstrakt: |
In July 2022, following a five-year battle to reunify with their twin sons, Courtney and Jeremy Johnson’s parental rights were terminated. On appeal, the Supreme Court of North Carolina evaluated only one statutory ground for termination of their parental rights: section 7B-1111(a)(3) of the juvenile code, which allows the State to terminate parental rights for willful nonpayment of foster care costs. But the Johnsons were never told that they owed the State any money, let alone how much, or to whom, they were supposed to pay. This Recent Development argues that the Supreme Court of North Carolina’s decision in In re J.C.J. to terminate the Johnsons’ parental rights under section 7B-1111(a) was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
