The National Family Law Policy Center
The Policy Center's goal is to encourage every state to adopt family law policies that adhere to The Center's guiding legal principles and the rule of law where the United States Constitution is the supreme law of America.
Core Organizational Goals
JUDICIAL GOAL: The Center's judicial goal is to ensure that courts embrace their duty to affirmatively apply procedural protections for the rights at issue in family law proceedings.
LEGISLATIVE GOAL: The Center's Legislative goal is for Legislators to realize the importance of adapting family codes to the constitutional realities of the 21st Century and to provide statutory procedural protections for family law disputes between fit parents.
FAMILY GOAL: The Center's goal for parents and attorneys is to raise their awareness of family rights, protections for these rights, and how to defend these rights in court.
Our Mission
The mission of The Policy Center is to create fair, just, constitutionally compliant, and efficient civil court systems addressing family issues related to divorced and single parents through advocacy, policy reform, and education. We provide scholarship applied to sound policy to help states effectively and efficiently provide justice in family law codes and public policies.
This work is designed to bring family law into the 21st century, and to ensure children of all fit parents receive the protection of having two loving, supporting parents remain in their lives with full authority, and to create awareness that the best interest of the child is protected best when each parent's rights are protected that enable each parent independently to fulfill their duty and responsibilities to the child directly, and ability to exercise the right to protect the child from unwarranted government influence or interference into their private life.
In Support of States
The Center works to identify policy and legal presumptions embedded in family code statutes that are vulnerable to federal review and recommends changes that reduce this vulnerability. The Center evaluates proposed family law legislation and provides education on the constitutional soundness of the proposed legislation, historical presumptions in family law and the constitutional changes over the last 50+ years that impact those presumptions. The Center provides training for Legislators, Judges, Executive Agencies, policy staff, attorneys, and support staff on constitutional integration.
In Support of Parents
The Center works to reduce the damaging effects of the current family court process on parents and their children, to protect the freedom and authority of each fit parent, to reduce the number of criminal records being created by this process, to reduce the potential for legal abuse, and protect civil rights and dignity of parents and children, so that parents can continue to be fully productive citizens, continue to contribute to the development of their children, and participate fully in their communities.
In Support of Children
The Center works to reduce the damaging effects of the current family court process on children, to protect the child's bond and association with each of its parents, to protect the child to the full influence and authority of each fit parent, to protect each child from the unwanted interference and influence of government.
In Support of Communities
The Center works to reduce the damaging effects of the current family court practices on local businesses, reduce the drain on tax-payer supported services, and promote stability across community institutions.