New York Times Guest Column Submission

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    Office of Leon R. Koziol1518 Genesee Street

    Utica, NY 13502Phone: (315) 796-4000

    [email protected]

    Andrew RosenthalOpinion Page Editor December 1, 2010New York Times

    Dear Mr. Rosenthal: Re: Guest Column

    In April, 2008, the New York court system brought action against the other branches ofgovernment demanding pay raises. Predictably, the court system won because its lawsuit wasfiled in its own courts. The losers then ignored the final judgment, maintaining that the judiciaryhad exceeded its constitutional powers over the other branches where the People had vested

    budgetary authority.

    A host of anomalies followed along with a dangerous precedent for constituents. When two-thirds of an elected government declares void the edicts of its courts, residents are invited to dothe same under the human rights provisions of both the federal and state constitutions. The Ninthand Tenth Amendments provide additional legal authority for this.

    Certain rights are deemed inalienable, and our supreme laws can contemplate no greaterprotection than the liberty of parents to raise their offspring. Unfortunately, like the pay raisefiasco, New Yorks court system has been exceeding its powers by trampling all over this rightin its own tribunals.

    The transgression carries far greater implications than those associated with annual judicialsalaries of $136,000. State infringements upon parent-child relations produce violations of a fullrange of other rights protected by our Constitution. These include free speech, free association,free religion and privacy interests, among others.

    However, not unlike child control doctrines championed by Adolph Hitler, the state simplydeclares that it is acting in our childrens best interests, and these precious human rights incura disappearing act. The magic show has been underway for decades all across America, but wiservictims are recognizing their domestic courts for what they have become.

    Virtually every social ill of our day can be traced to divorce and custody laws which coerceparents to fight over their own children in public court contests. These needless and barbaricprocesses exploit children for profit. Employers, forensic witnesses and entire families are hauledinto them with a collective impact that is harming the productivity of an entire nation.

    mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]
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    Andrew RosenthalPage two12/1/10

    Family Court litigants do not grasp the enormity of rights they surrender when setting out to

    compensate strangers at their childrens expense. Like Pavlovs dogs, they are conditioned topetition government for the answers to all their parenting failures, only to find that the state isoverburdened, underfinanced and wholly incompetent to raise those same children.

    This responsibility remains, as it always has, in the hands of two very distinct persons: a fatherand a mother. While many settings do not permit one or both figures, government is renderingthem obsolete. Mainstream parents who simply choose to live apart are lumped together withunfit characters and forced to prove themselves in search of a gender merged award of custodialparent.

    So alien is this state creation that it is empowered to believe that a child is better off with money

    than the other parent. Custodial parents across the country are demanding imprisonment of theirnatural counterparts simply because an arbitrary federal formula requires greater cash transfers tothe state (support collection unit). The formula has little regard for parental agreement or themaintenance of a non-custodial family unit.

    Overriding constitutional reform, judges are finding no issue with debtor prison practices, inmany cases jailing good parents without counsel (the subject of an upcoming Supreme Courtcase). Interest revenues are then collected off of mass produced support orders to pay for raisesand additional intrusions. When coupled with federal incentive grants, it is plain to see that amulti-billion dollar child industry has moved our courts well beyond their founding framework.

    Transfer payments through power (custody) and money (support) awards comprise the longantiquated vehicles for generating controversy, fees, revenues and scrutiny of diverse familyunits. Unless parents are found to be unfit or dependent on public assistance, the state has nopower under an American form of government to micromanage private affairs.

    As a new leadership enters Congress, policymakers would do well to overhaul the welfaresystem known as Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. Designed to target absentee fathers, itwas expanded over time to mainstream parents in order to fund the entire system. This socialistexperiment has backfired to produce more costly impacts upon crime, education, our economyand future generations of Americans.

    Very truly yours,

    Leon R. Koziol, J.D.

    Leon Koziol is a civil rights advocate who has practiced constitutional law for more than 23years in New York State. Recently, he established the Parenting Rights Institute with anationwide support base. For more information, visit him atwww.leonkoziol.com.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/39262064/Parenting-Rights-Institute-Prospectus-Version-5http://opt/scribd/conversion/tmp/scratch6593/www.leonkoziol.comhttp://opt/scribd/conversion/tmp/scratch6593/www.leonkoziol.comhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/39262064/Parenting-Rights-Institute-Prospectus-Version-5http://opt/scribd/conversion/tmp/scratch6593/www.leonkoziol.com
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