That is not entirely true, and it is not true in all cases.
Although the United States Supreme Court several years ago struck down a broadly worded State of Washington statute that had been the basis for grandparent visitation there, the Court left open many possibilities on which other cases might be treated differently. This is an area where particular facts and circumstances can be important. Idaho’s specific grandparent visitation statute is worded differently from the one at issue in Washington. Other Idaho statutes may also apply in certain circumstances, for example, one that allows the court to recognize a grandparent as having the same standing as a parent where the child has resided with the grandparent in a stable relationship.
We also see situations in which controversy has developed between parents and grandparents following a period during which a child has been placed voluntarily with the grandparent (for any number of reasons) and then later the grandparent refuses to release the child to the parent.
Sometimes these situations arise in the context of a guardianship, either an existing guardianship that an interested party seeks to terminate or facts that can form the basis for an interested party seeking a guardianship. Guardianship is another area that seems to be perpetually in flux in terms of the case law, and for which individual facts and circumstances are extremely important.
