Fighting for the children for all servicemen
We need your donations!
Welcome to our fight in supporting the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
Hello and welcome to our website. We are raising funds to assist a young man in the Navy (Cory) who is fighting a court case that will set a precedent for ALL unwed fathers who are serving in the military who wish to raise their children.
We have built this website to provide information about the legal system and protecting ALL unwed fathers against losing their children to adoption without their consent. Currently Laws in most states allow this.
We truly NEED YOUR DONATIONS to continue to fight this “battle”. We have already won this case in the trial court. We have to secure funding to succeed in the appeals court.
For Validation / Verification: the court case has been filed in the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee, Florida: Case No.: 1D09 - 1731
You will continue to see changes to the content of this website in the coming months as this legal case unfolds. We welcome you to continue to check our site for new updates about the cause we are supporting to assist servicemembers in their parental right to raise their biological children in certain situations. We welcome you to donate once, or if you prefer, you can donate monthly.
Read the "About Us" tab for this Court Case history
Recent News
9/21/2009 - New Website Launch
On 9/21/2009, we launched our new website. We invite you to take a look around the website and tell your friends so they too, may become informed about the "putative father registry" law by using our new Spread the Word website tool.
The other "point of law" discussed here (and won in the trial court) is the putative father registry constitutionality. This will assist men who are NOT in the military, yet their children were given up for adoption without their consent.
Purpose
Did you know a man can lose his rights to parent his child?
Under the following circumstances this may happen:
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He is not married to the birth mother
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He does not register in the putative father’s registry
The putative father registry is loosely defined as a registry where men complete a paternity acknowledgment form after every sexual encounter; whether or not the sexual encounter results in a pregnancy.
See the below Websites for confirmation.
Georgia: http://health.state.ga.us/programs/vitalrecords/fatherreg.asp
Illinois: http://www.putativefather.org/index.aspx
Ohio: http://jfs.ohio.gov/pfr/
Florida: http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Planning_eval/Vital_Statistics/Putative.htm
Obviously, not all states are listed here; and we invite you to verify this in your own state.
At least 30 states have a putative father registry. Most, if not all, these registries have specific deadlines on when a man must file, in order to preserve their rights as a father.
Currently, a court case in Florida will determine whether or not the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003 will provide relief for unwed fathers to parent their child under these circumstances.
This case will also decide if the Florida Putative father registry statute is constitutional.
We are asking everyone to donate to support this cause.
No amount is too small
There is NO legal precedent for this situation. This case is one of "first impression" on two separate points of law; Which is why we MUST win this case. We are truly fighting for the rights of all servicement.
(NOTE: The case has been won in the trial courts, it has now gone to the appeals court. We are awaiting the appeal court ruling as of December 2009.)
Please consider donating; Not just for Cory, but for every potential father that has gone through this or who may face this in the future.
Pertinent reading and links:
This article was written by Erik Smith prior to this current court case and the adoption laws in Florida have changed somewhat... Although the absurdity remains.
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-8023993/Putative-father-registry-deadlines-and.html
This article appeared in the Air Force Law Review volume 60, September 2007, pp 175-197.
http://www.eriksmith.org/content/home/?id=2
Erik Smith has complied a list of articles and case law which provides insight into the difficulties that unwed fathers might face when they want to parent their children.