Supreme Court Vacates Termination of Parental Rights Order

In a case upon which the Supreme Court granted leave and scheduled argument to occur in May 2016, today the Supreme Court vacated the order adjudicating jurisdiction over the children and vacated the order terminating parental rights. This new development arose after the mother’s counsel (Liisa Speaker and Vivek Sankaran) filed a joint motion with the Attorney General’s office to vacate the trial court’s decision. The Supreme Court had planned to review in the case whether the case of In re Hatcher presented a bar to a parent challenging an adjudication order after the termination of parental rights, even when the parent was challenging the adjudication order on constitutional grounds. (Jones order granting leave). Due to this recent development in Jones, parents and practitioners will have to wait for another case to reach the Supreme Court to revolve this issue.