(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/23/2024) In two separate cases on Friday, the Michigan Supreme Court agreed with lower court decisions that parents with substance abuse issues should be stripped of their parental rights. In doing so, the high court rejected a legal theory that taking away parents' legal rights should only take place if there's evidence that continuing the parent-child relationship would cause harm. 

The Attorney General's office countered that the parents were trying to expand their rights when a court had already ruled them unfit.  

In the first case, In re Bates, minors, a friend who was babysitting called authorities when he saw the family home's condition. At the time, the mother was an alcoholic and was later hospitalized with a blood alcohol level of 0.337, which is more than four times the legal driving limit. 

The father was given full custody of their two young sons and the mother was allowed weekly supervised visits. In 2022, following a trial, the mother's parental rights were terminated. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that it had no problem with that decision. 

Justice Megan Cavanagh dissented, however. 

"In my opinion, a preponderance of the evidence did not support that termination was in (the children's) best interests," she noted. "The evidence was simply insufficient to conclude that the boys' continued relationship with their mother, even an unconventional or imperfect one, was not worth maintaining." 

Justice Elizabeth Welch joined Cavanagh's statement, and she wrote a separate dissenting opinion in the second case, In re D.N. Dailey, Minor, which Cavanagh joined. 

In that case, the state petitioned the court to assume jurisdiction over the child, DD. The parents admitted the child was born with drugs in his system and that they continued to abuse heroin, impairing their ability to care for him. 

The parents, who consistently visited and parented their son, who lived with his maternal grandmother, suggested a guardianship arrangement, but the trial court found it was in the boy's best interest to terminate their parental rights. 

Welch said she believes the trial court should have explored whether a guardianship would serve the child's best interests.