Teen Mom Teen Dad Custody Case

Ireland v. Smith: 1995

Appellant: Jennifer Ireland
Appellee: Steven J. Smith
Appellant's Claim: That a lower court ruling that gave custody of Ireland's daughter to the biological father should be reversed.
Chief Lawyer for Appellee: Sharon-Lee Edwards
Chief Lawyer for Appellant: The University of Michigan Law School, Women and the Law Clinic by Julie Kunce Field
Judges: Roman S. Gribbs, Roy D. Gotham, and Janet T. Neff
Place: Detroit, Michigan
Date of Decision: November 7, 1995
Decision: An appeals court reversed the trial court's decision to remove Baby Maranda from the custody of her mother because she had put the child in day care; the case went back to the lower court for a retrial and Baby Maranda went back to her mother.
Significance: A judge's appearance of bias against a mother who put her daughter in child care angered working women across the nation. Many wondered, "Are the courts prejudiced against working mothers?" "Do courts have too much leeway in deciding the 'best interests' of a child?"

In 1990, 15-year-old Jennifer Ireland was on the top of the world: a popular cheerleader, straight-A student, and the steady girlfriend of the school football star, Steven Smith. But four days after she told Smith that she was pregnant with his child, he broke up with her. Two months later, she checked into a Michigan clinic for an abortion.

At the clinic, the Catholic teen "started thinking I was going to burn in hell." On April 22, 1991, Ireland gave birth to Maranda Kate Ireland-Smith. Smith did not visit Ireland or his baby until their last day in the hospital. The parents agreed to put their daughter up for adoption.

Three weeks later Ireland changed her mind. With the help of her mother and younger sister, she decided to raise Maranda herself. Smith was so angry he did not attempt to see his daughter for one year.

Moving On
After missing two months of her sophomore year, Ireland returned to Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School in Marine City, Michigan. Both she and Smith resumed their normal activities: cheerleading, sports, dating others, and partying. Ireland finished the 1991 term with a 3.98 average, eventually graduating with the third highest ranking in her class.

In the fall of 1993, Ireland, the recipient of an $11,000 scholarship from the University of Michigan, moved to Ann Arbor. She and Maranda lived in an apartment in the university family housing building. So that she would be free to attend classes, Ireland used her personal savings to put Maranda in the university-approved day care center.

Earlier in the year (January 29), Ireland had filed for child support, winning a modest weekly contribution. Smith countersued for custody of his daughter and, in addition, asked the court to reduce his child support payments to twelve dollars a week. Ireland responded with a domestic violence charge, supposedly back to 1992, against Smith.

The Best Custodial Care
In May and June 1994, the dispute came before 69-year-old Judge Raymond R. Cashen of Macomb County Circuit Court. Cashen appointed the Psychodiagnostic and Family Services Clinic and the Macomb County Friends of the Court to evaluate Maranda's home life. Both agencies agreed that the three-year-old should remain with her mother.

Nonetheless, Sharon-Lee Edwards, Smith's attorney, implied that Ireland was unfit to raise Maranda. During the custody hearing she alleged Ireland "dated many different boys, had sexual relations with most of them, went to parties, abused drugs, and was never home with her baby." By contrast, Edwards insinuated that Smith was quietly living at home with his father and mother. Maranda's grandmother would care for Maranda while her son attended Macomb County Community College and worked part-time at a local park.

Ireland furiously denied Smith's allegations, claiming that he was the real swinger. She said Smith had no ambition, acted violently, and had taken an interest in Maranda only after she had asked for more child support and brought assault charges against him. Furthermore, Ireland's home was the only one Maranda had ever known, and a change of custody would harm her.

On July 27, 1994, Cashen announced that it would be better for Maranda to be in her paternal grandmother's home, "raised and supervised by blood relations" than put in day care "supervised a great part of the time by strangers."

The judge, a father of seven, concluded, "I went to the heart of the matter, and that is, 'What is the best interest of the child?'" He said that there was no way that a person in a rigorous academic college could do justice to both her studies and her child. In a decision that made headlines across the nation, he stripped Ireland of custody, ordering her to turn Maranda over to the child's father within fifteen days. She could see Maranda every other weekend, holidays, and other occasions. Smith observed, "With more and more women in the workplace, men have to raise their children."

Two days after he won custody, Smith was arraigned on the 1992 assault charge. Ireland had claimed that he had grabbed her by the shoulders, shook her, and shoved her against a wall. In Smith's eyes, it had been a mutual shoving match. However, Cashen declared this information "superfluous" and "not pertinent" to the custody decision.

A Public Uproar
People throughout the nation condemned Cashen's ruling. Jacquie Steingod, board member of the National Organization for Women, told the New York Times on July 27, "It illustrates an attitude toward women about where they should be — the bedroom, kitchen and those kinds of places, not at college." On July 31, the paper interviewed Carol Bruch, a professor of law at the University of California at Davis. "There is certainly a backlash against women who assert some sort of independence, in favor of fathers who offer, albeit belatedly, some concrete evidence of wanting to be involved with their children," she said.

On August 1, the New York Times' lead editorial called it "an affront and threat to the millions of women for whom day care is the difference between ignorance and an education, poverty and a decent income, dependency and self-reliance. In stigmatizing Jennifer Ireland for her ambition and initiative, Judge Cashen stigmatizes all of them."

Some disagreed. Ellen Effron, chair of the American Bar Association's custody committee, told the Times on July 31, "Even though the courtroom is supposed to be gender neutral, when I represent the father, it's still an uphill battle." Jeff Atkinson, former chair of the custody committee, agreed, "Some judges are stuck in the 1950s' roles of parents, but I'd say the trend is that most judges are not."

But in the End . . .
Ireland's lawyers immediately filed an appeal and on August 9, 1994, the Michigan Court of Appeals granted Ireland a stay in the transfer of custody of Maranda until they could review the case. Nearly a year later, the court heard arguments. On November 7, 1995, Judge Roman S. Gribbs ruled: "A court may not change the established custodial environment of a child unless clear and convincing evidence is presented that it is in the best interest of the child."

Gribbs continued, "Because there was an established custodial environment in this case, the trial court is prohibited from changing custody." In a clear rebuke to the lower court, he added, "We find no support in the record for the trial court's speculation that there is 'no way that a single parent, attending an academic program at an institution as prestigious as the University of Michigan, can do justice to their studies and to raising of an infant child.' The evidence shows that the child has thrived in the university environment."

Finally, Gribbs pointed out that "the evidence does not support the trial court's judgment that defendant's proposed, but untested, plans for the child's care would be better" than the mother's. "We find the court committed clear legal error in considering the 'acceptability' of the parties' home and child-care arrangements." As for Ireland's charges of violence, the court found the evidence was too conflicting to decide.

Since the state supreme court could not rule on the question of custody itself, the case went back to the circuit court with instructions not to consider day care in its decision — and not to appoint Cashen to preside over the trial (the case was reassigned to Judge Lido Bucci). The legal fight continued until October 16, 1996, when Ireland and Smith agreed to share custody of Maranda. Ireland announced she would drop out of college and move closer to Smith, thereby allowing Maranda to attend school near the homes of both parents.

Ireland v. Smith galvanized working mothers throughout the country, the majority of whom place their pre-school children in day care some of the time. However, the presumption that the mother is always the better parent may be a legal fiction that will come under more challenges from fathers, which courts can only resolve by examining the stereotypes they share with much of the public.