Do judges or courts even consider race to be a factor in child custody hearings?
Courts are not permitted to consider race as a factor when deciding the best interests of the child. A United States Supreme Court decision in the mid-1980s ruled that a court cannot consider race when a non-custodial parent challenges a prior custody decision based on the fact that the custodial parent married a man of another race. In that case, the father of the child petitioned to change the custody agreement after the mother married an African-American man and moved to an African-American neighborhood. Although the father won in state court, the Supreme Court overruled them and decided that racial stereotypes cannot be the basis for a custody ruling.
