Parental Rights

Eugene Volokh | 1.2.2026 8:47 AM

Reed v. Reed, an appeal decided Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Superior Court (Judge Mary Jane Bowes, joined by Judges Mary Murray and Jill Beck), involved a paternal grandfather seeking shared legal custody and partial physical custody of two children (N.R. and M.R., ages 8 and 10 as of the time of the appellate decision). Many states allow grandparents shared custody in some situations, especially when their child (the grandchildren's parent) is dead, as was the case here. But, to oversimplify to some extent, they generally require some showing of failings on the part of the other parent.

In this case, the trial court did indeed rule for the grandfather, but the appellate court disagreed. An excerpt from the trial court's opinion (other portions of the trial court's opinion are discussed by the appellate opinion, so I haven't excerpted them here, but you can see a lot more here):

At the custody hearing on March 3, 2025, [Mother] testified that her friend Joanna, who is a member of the "Biker Church" in Boyertown, P[ennsylvania], traveled "in spirit" to [Paternal Grandfather]'s home in California, where she saw [Paternal Grandfather] and his wife talk about [Paternal Grandfather] reporting [Mother] to OCY.

When asked by this Court whether Joanna had any history of mental health treatment or criminal background, [Mother] replied, "Nope." [Mother] further testified that her children and God are ranked equally in terms of importance in her life, however, [Paternal Grandfather]'s counsel offered into evidence a video from [Mother]'s YouTube channel, where [Mother] stated that God comes before her children. When asked by [Paternal Grandfather]'s counsel whether she receives cues from God regarding her children, [Mother] indicated that she is "led to do certain things based on [her] faith with God." When asked by [Paternal Grandfather]'s counsel whether [Mother] is guided by voices or instructions, she simply stated, "Not necessarily. Kind of like you will get an instinct to do something, or your gut feeling about doing something." Notably, [Mother] testified that she has never had any sort of mental health diagnosis and is not willing to be examined as she does not "feel it's necessary" and has "no concerns at all for [her] mental health." …

The trial court granted Grandfather shared legal custody, which required a finding that substantial risk of parental neglect was proved by the statutorily required clear and convincing evidence; the appellate court disagreed. An excerpt from the long appellate opinion:

[T]he court found that Mother "has no interest in providing a proper education and is neglecting to appropriately educate her children." It additionally stated that Mother "barely had a high school diploma" and felt that Mother's desire to homeschool the children was to satisfy her own religious beliefs and personal desires above the educational needs of the girls. The court indicated that it was uneasy about the........

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