00                      SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 26                                                                    
01 Relating to support for the Parental Rights Amendment; and urging the United States                                     
02 Congress to submit the Parental Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.                                        
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04       WHEREAS the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their                                    
05 children is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution of the United States and the                              
06 Constitution of the State of Alaska; and                                                                                
07       WHEREAS our nation historically has relied on parents, first and foremost, to meet                              
08 the real and constant needs of children; and                                                                            
09       WHEREAS the interests of children are best served when parents are free to make                                 
10 childrearing decisions about education, religion, and other areas of a child's life, without state                      
11 interference; and                                                                                                       
12       WHEREAS, in 1972, the United States Supreme Court, in Wisconsin v. Yoder, held                                  
13 that the "primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established                            
14 beyond debate as an enduring American tradition"; and                                                                   
15       WHEREAS, in 2000, in Troxel v. Granville, six justices of the United States Supreme                             
16 Court filed opinions questioning the nature and enforceability of parental rights under the                             

01 Constitution of the United States; and                                                                                  
02       WHEREAS the separate opinions filed in Troxel v. Granville have created confusion                               
03 and ambiguity about the fundamental nature of parental rights in the laws and society of the                            
04 states; and                                                                                                             
05       WHEREAS the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which would                                   
06 drastically alter the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children, has                      
07 been proposed and may soon be considered for ratification by the United States Senate; and                              
08       WHEREAS the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been                                       
09 acceded to by 192 nations worldwide and has been cited by courts in the United States as                                
10 "customary international law"; and                                                                                      
11       WHEREAS international influence is being exerted on the United States Supreme                                   
12 Court, as demonstrated in Roper v. Simmons (2005), in which the Court referred to the laws                              
13 of other countries and to international authorities as instructive for its interpretation of the                        
14 Constitution of the United States; and                                                                                  
15       WHEREAS U.S. Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan introduced H. J. RES.                                    
16 42 in the United States House of Representatives proposing an amendment to the Constitution                             
17 of the United States to prevent erosion of the enduring American tradition of treating parental                         
18 rights as fundamental rights as follows:                                                                                
19            "SECTION ONE: The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education                                  
20       of their children is a fundamental right.                                                                         
21            "SECTION TWO: Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe upon                                    
22       this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person                          
23       is of the highest order and not otherwise served.                                                                 
24            "SECTION THREE: No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of                                             
25       international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights                             
26       guaranteed by this article."; and                                                                                 
27       WHEREAS the amendment in H. J. RES. 42 would add explicit text to the                                           
28 Constitution of the United States to protect forever the rights of parents as those rights are                          
29 now enjoyed, without substantive change to current state or federal laws related to those                               
30 rights; and                                                                                                             
31       WHEREAS enumeration of those rights in the text of the Constitution of the United                               

01 States will preserve those rights from being infringed upon by the shifting ideologies and                              
02 interpretations of the United States Supreme Court; and                                                                 
03       WHEREAS enumeration of those rights in the text of the Constitution of the United                               
04 States will preserve them from being infringed upon by treaty or international law;                                     
05       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature affirms H. J. RES. 42, the                                     
06 Parental Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, as presented to the United                                 
07 States Congress by Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan; and be it                                                 
08       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the members of the                                     
09 United States Congress to submit H. J. RES. 42, the Parental Rights Amendment, to the states                            
10 for ratification.                                                                                                       
11       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
12 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and                          
13 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate;                             
14 the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable                                 
15 Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don                                      
16 Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress; all other                                     
17 members of the 111th United States Congress; and the presiding officers of the legislatures of                          
18 each of the other 49 states.