Schutz v. Schutz
Supreme Court of Florida
581 So.2d 1290 (1991)
After Richard and Laurel Schutz divorced, custody shifted to Laurel with visitation for Richard, and hostility between them escalated; Laurel moved with the children to Georgia without telling Richard, evaded his visits there three times, and only told him seven months later that she'd moved back to Florida. Once Richard regained contact, the children told him they hated, despised, and feared him because he'd supposedly failed to support or visit them. After a hearing on competing custody and visitation motions, the trial court found Laurel at fault for the deteriorating relationship and ordered her to do everything in her power to foster a loving, caring feeling in the children toward Richard through words, actions, demeanor, or implication, backed by potential contempt, imprisonment, or loss of custody for noncompliance; Laurel appealed, arguing the order violated her First Amendment free speech rights.
Whether a trial court's order that a custodial parent must take affirmative action to encourage and nurture, by word or conduct, the relationship between a child and non-custodial parent violates the custodial parent's First Amendment right to free speech.