With a majority opinion by Justice Ginsburg, the US Supreme Court addressed the long-standing federal circuit split on the standard for determination of habitual residence under the Hague Child Abduction Convention in Monasky v. Taglieri, 589 U.S. ___ (2020). The Court held that "a child's habitual residence depends on the totality of the circumstances specific to the case," rejecting the argument that proof of an actual agreement between the parents is necessary to establish an infant's habitual residence.

At the end of its term last week, the U.S. Supreme court granted review in Lozano v. Alvarez to consider the issue of “equitable tolling” in cases under Article 12 of the Hague Child Abduction Convention. The opinion from the Second Circuit, which refused to permit tolling, is at 697 F.3d 41 (2d Cir.

The US Supreme Court decided its second case under the Hague Child Abduction Convention on February 19, with its ruling in Chafin v. Chafin 568 U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 1017 (2013). The case resolved a split among the circuits of the federal Court of Appeals, but the Court had an easy time deciding the central issue, ruling unanimously that the return of a child under the Convention does not moot an appeal of the trial court’s return order, as long as there is something at stake for the party seeking to appeal.

The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule this spring on Chafin v. Chafin, a case under the Hague Child Abduction Convention that was argued on December 5.  Previous posts are here and here.

This week marked the second appearance of the Hague Child Abduction Convention in the U.S.   Supreme Court, with the oral arguments in Chafin v. Chafin (see my previous post here).

The U.S. Supreme Court begins its new Term today with a Hague Child Abduction case on the docket, set for argument on Wednesday, December 5, 2012. Chafin v.

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Chafin v. Chafin, docket number 11-01347, to address a circuit split as to whether an order returning a child under the Hague Abduction Convention renders an  appeal of that order moot.  Chafin comes from the Eleventh Circuit, which treats such appeals as moot, see Bekier v. Bekier, 248 F.3d 1051 (11th Cir.

The Supreme Court issued a  per curiam opinion this week in Flores-Villar v. United States, a  case that raised the issue once again of distinctions in the citizenship rights of children born abroad to unmarried U.S.

Citing the emerging split within the U.S. Court of Appeals on the test for determination of habitual residence, lawyers have filed a petition for certiorari in the Supreme Court in Heydt-Benjamin v. Heydt-Benjamin.  The case was decided by the Second Circuit in an unpublished decision in December 2010 (available at 2010 WL 5294639).  The court  cited its previous ruling in Gitter v. Gitter, 396 F.3d 124 (2d Cir.

Looking behind the current U.S. moratorium on adoption from Vietnam, Foreign Policy has published Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis by E.J.