The system by which Americans, especially New Yorkers, decide how to make decisions for their children by parents who are divorcing is an antiquated relic based on the premise that such decisions must be made within the legal system. In fact, any suggestion that the courthouse is the last place a custody decision should be made is immediately met with cries that parents have a constitutional right to make decisions for their children, and those rights must be decided in the courthouse. However, such arguments also stem from decisions by courts which at the same time recognized that children and spouses are the property of the father/husband.
The Blue Ribbon Commission, a group of people selected by Gov. Cuomo, released an 18-page report purporting to seek to fix grievances in New York’s child custody system (the Report). In its report, the commission focused almost exclusively on one participant in the child custody system: mental health professionals appointed by the court to conduct a forensic assessment of the family in divorce proceedings.
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