You, as Grandparents, have rights concerning visitation with your grandchildren when the unhappy event of divorce occurs. Do you know what those rights are and how to assert them? If you are in the untenable position of not being allowed to visit with your grandchild(ren), then you seriously need to do your homework and find out what your rights are, before some high minded, high paid legislator makes it worse and takes them away! KNOW the laws in your state concerning grandparental visitation and custody rights.

For now, you are safe...

1. A majority opinion written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, held:

"Because much state-court adjudication in this context occurs on a case-by-case basis, we would be hesitant to hold that specific non-parental visitation statutes violate the Due Process Clause as a per se matter."

Translation: They hesitate to say "that specific statutes violate Due Process." In this case, the Due Process of Family Law.

Since 1982, the arguments swirling around grandparents' rights have been hotly debated. Should a divorce or legal separation be in place PRIOR to any grandparents' abilities to intercede or EVEN TO VISIT? A court in Michigan (MCL 722.27b) said that, for the purpose of giving grandparents a chance to file for visitation right, a child custody dispute would still be pending, EVEN AFTER THE DIVORCE HAD BEEN GRANTED!

2. What States Have These Rights?

Well, since the Federal Supreme Court of the United States of America held that Justice O'Connor's opinion held true, these rights are now recognized in every State of the Union. Every State in America agrees that grandparents have legal rights, too, when it comes to visitation with their grandchildren.

3. And what about non-biological, but nevertheless family-connected relationships? (Yes, even non-bio grandparents have certain rights!)

In doing some research, I discovered that the highest percentage figure for non-maternal custody was 15 assumes the other person with custody is the just the father. This is simply not true. The national CSE office, reporting the number of clients receiving Child Supports payment, reports that the other 15 fathers. The other 7% are non-biological parent, such as aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Granted, this is not about visitation issues. It's about custody. But readily and freely available information on the Internet about non-biological grandparents rights for visitation is simply not available.

So WHERE are you going to find the very information you so desperately need? It's going to take a lot of footwork, emailing lawyers across the country, talking to as many Grandparents Rights organizations as you can find (there aren't that many!). I tried a search for grandparents' rights on groups.google.com There were a few groups there. Sadly, most of them had only one or two members. The most membership I saw was 29. Somehow, I don't think they've got the resources you need.

The easier route would be to look for someone who has already done the footwork and research FOR YOU.