The Honorable Wm Wagner (Ret) Addresses National Audience in Radio Interview

On The Drew Mariani Show this week, Professor William Wagner addressed the deeply emotional and legally complex question of grandparents’ visitation rights in light of a recent Boston Globe investigation into an ongoing Rhode Island Family Court case. The Globe article highlighted a dispute in which a grieving set of grandparents sought court-ordered contact with their young granddaughter over the objections of her father. 

Professor Wagner began by acknowledging the profound love and devotion that many grandparents feel toward their grandchildren — bonds formed over years of shared life and memories that, for many families, are indispensable. He expressed compassionate understanding for grandparents who have lost a child or who are painfully separated from their grandchildren, affirming that such love is a beautiful testimony to the enduring strength of family relationships.

Yet, Wagner explained that in our constitutional order, parental rights are not privileges granted by governments but are unalienable, fundamental liberties. Drawing on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Troxel v. Granville, he reminded listeners that the Court has long recognized that “the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children… is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests” protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

Wagner emphasized that this constitutional protection ensures that parents, not the state, are the primary decision-makers for their children’s upbringing, including decisions about who may visit and when. He noted that while state statutes — such as Rhode Island’s law allowing grandparents to petition for visitation — attempt to balance interests, courts must still give “special weight” to a fit parent’s choices. 

Importantly, Wagner urged that this legal framework does not diminish the place of grandparents in the life of a child. Instead, it seeks to protect the child’s most fundamental attachment: the parent-child relationship. Where genuine harm or danger exists, he said, the state may have a role; where parental decisions are made out of love and concern, courts must respect those decisions. In closing, he extended empathy to families on all sides of the issue, calling for grace, respect for constitutional order, and prayerful pursuit of reconciliation where possible.