In Munsell v. Munsell, (NE Sup. Ct., May 8, 2026), the Nebraska Supreme Court modified a trial court's divorce decree in a dispute over who could decide whether the divorced couple's children would attend a church camp. The trial court's decree had allowed the mother (Libby) who had sole custody to prevent the father (Jacob) from enrolling the children in church camp during his parenting time. The Nebraska Supreme Court disagreed. The court said in part:
Jacob and Libby were raised in the same religion as that of the church Jacob currently attends. Jacob testified the church follows the tenet that women should be “subservient” to men and that the church should be led by men. During their marriage, the parties and the children attended the church. However, Libby testified that she “left the church” about 5 months before filing for divorce, no longer agreed with some of the church’s teachings, and did not like that ... wom[e]n were silenced and subjugated.” She also testified that she did not like the “culture of fear and shame that the church brings on”....
Jacob’s parents live on the church camp’s property as care takers. Jacob testified the church camp was a “huge part” of his life....
As this appeal illustrates, the state-law right of a legal custodian to make fundamental decisions about a child’s educational and religious upbringing can conflict with the non-custodial parent’s fundamental right to influence the religious upbringing of the child during his or her parenting time. The U.S. Supreme Court has not weighed in on the difficult question of how to properly balance these conflicting rights in the context of divorce proceedings....
... [I]in our de novo review, we see an absence of evidence that allowing the children to attend the church camp would pose “an immediate and substantial threat to a child’s temporal well-being.”...
Accordingly, we see no basis to restrict Jacob’s ability to enroll the children in the church camp during his parenting time.
