September 14, 2008

Travis County Judge Tells Woman to Stop Having Kids

For me, this is life imitating law school.  I was on the Moot Court Board in law school and I was on the team that created the hypothetical case for the final competition.  We crafted a case where an alcoholic mother who had given birth to 2 children with fetal alcohol syndrome was given the choice by the judge to have a reduced sentence and probation if she would agree to take birth control injections.  The case below is very similar and after hearing this issue argued ad nauseum before numerous panels presided over by prominent jurists, I don't think it is clearly unconstitutional as the "legal experts" below say:

A judge in Travis County has ordered a woman to stop having children as a condition of her probation in her case of injury to a child by omission, an extraordinary measure that legal experts say could be unconstitutional.

. . .

On Sept. 5, state District Judge Charlie Baird sentenced Salazar, who had no criminal history, to 10 years of probation after she reached a plea bargain with prosecutors. In Texas, judges set conditions of probation. In addition to requiring Salazar to perform 100 hours of community service and to undergo a mental health assessment and setting other typical conditions, Baird told Salazar not to have any more children.

In an interview Wednesday, Baird said Texas law gives judges the discretion to set any conditions of probation deemed reasonable. He also said that neither Salazar nor her lawyer, Kent Anschutz, objected.

"When you look her background, the circumstances of this case," he said, "a reasonable condition of her probation was that she not conceive or bear any children."

Here is the original article: Travis County Judge Tells Woman to Stop Having Kids

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Comments on Travis County Judge Tells Woman to Stop Having Kids »

September 14, 2008

dani @ 2:01 pm

Wow….

danis last blog post..1/10/08

September 23, 2008

TR from Alcoholism Symptoms @ 11:03 am

That is crazy! Though for some people, not having kids sure would eliminate a lot of grief…but did they make her go on birth control or get her tubes tied? Otherwise it would seem like they are encouraging abortion?

TRs last blog post..Drug and Alcohol Clip Art

Tracy @ 11:10 am

@TR@Alcoholism Symptoms:

I don't think he required any specific action other than NOT getting pregnant. If she gets pregnant, then she will violate the terms of her probation and she will go to jail. In that situation, she could end up having the baby in jail and then they baby has to go to foster care.

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