Child Custody Shift OK'd For Failure To Follow Religious Upbinging Agreement

In Herschfus v. Herschfus, (MI Ct. App., Dec. 27, 2007), a Michigan appellate court upheld a lower court's modification of a custody award. The court gave sole legal and physical custody of a divorced couple's child, Jacob, to the father, based in significant part on the mother's failure to comply with the agreement entered at the time of the divorce to raise Jacob in the Orthodox Jewish religion. It rejected the mother's First Amendment challenge, finding that "the trial court’s ruling was constitutionally appropriate because it was based on Jacob’s needs and not on a value judgment regarding the parties' practice of religion."