Submitted by Karen A. Wyle, Feb 19, 2007 18:56

I am somewhat disappointed that the earlier portion of this article treated the court's decision as allowing grandparents to "overcome a relatively low standard". As your article eventually explains, the court made clear that the presumption favoring the parent's decisions on visitation is a "strong presumption" and a "high hurdle" to overcome. The facts of the case, which the court emphasized, were not typical of grandparent visitation cases -- the grandmother had been a "live-in surrogate mother", and the relationship between grandmother and grandchild was exceptionally close.

It was with this language in mind that I described the decision as relatively mainstream. If the court had in fact allowed grandparents to overcome a relatively low standard, then the decision would have been out of step with most states' cases.

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