THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 27, 1997 TAG: 9701250030
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 41 lines
Back in the days when the Equal Rights Amendment was a perennial issue in Richmond, opponents argued that it would open a Pandora's Box of legal challenges and unanticipated problems.
ERA supporters came away from that long battle defeated, but apparently not uneducated regarding the best way to fight proposed constitutional amendments.
Some of those same forces are now battling a so-called Parental Rights Amendment to the state constitution. They argue persuasively that (guess what?) the risks of court challenges and unintended consequences are not worth the possible gains.
Much like the ERA, the proposed amendment sounds remarkably simple: ``The right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.''
Who could argue?
Except that, as Virginia constitutional-expert-in-residence A. E. Dick Howard suggested recently, the key word - ``fundamental'' - opens a Pandora's Box of potential legal challenges to school and community rules. Everything from teen curfews to library book selections to child-abuse enforcement might be opened to challenge, he said.
Coming on home-school lobbying day, the hearing drew one of the largest audiences at the state Capitol in memory. Clearly, many parents have concerns about the way public policy affects their children. Caring parents are justified in wanting to make sure that their own values and rules are not being undermined. But amending the state constitution is overkill.
Opponents of the ERA argued that most, if not all, of the protections sought through a constitutional guarantee could be gained within the political process and the courts. Over time, they've been proved correct.
Parental rights can be protected in much the same fashion. None of the 28 states that have considered a Parental Rights Amendment to their state constitution has approved such a clause.
Virginia, with its long history of moving slowly on proposed constitutional changes, should not be the first.