Legal Definition of Families

* When the above definition of family is used, it must include students as follows: Students, regardless of their place of residence, who are supported by their parents or other relatives by birth, marriage or adoption are considered residents of those who support them. Federal law should take this reality into account, as failure to fully recognize the existence of selected families causes real harm, ranging from the insult of not being recognized to non-inclusion or coverage of certain benefits or programs. In fact, a nationally representative survey conducted by the Center for American Progress in 2017 found that nearly one-third of all respondents reported taking time off work to care for a selected friend or family member. By failing to adapt to the changing realities of today`s families, federal law renders many family members invisible and unable to use the programs and policies they should have access to. Federal legislators should turn to federal regulators, as regulations have already outpaced laws to keep pace with changing family structures. If the laws of this country include a broader understanding of what it means to be a family, it will benefit many families, especially LGBTQ families. In addition, incorporating broader definitions into the legislation and not just clarifying regulations would make it more difficult to repeal definitions, as the legislative process is generally much slower than the regulatory process. Since the 1970s, single parents have acquired an importance that is not sufficiently reflected in traditional law. It may be necessary to further adapt the law to the needs of lone parents in areas such as the organization of family and child protection services, as well as the legal and administrative mechanism of family support, employment assistance, day-care facilities, etc. The head of a single-parent household may have difficulty paying the high cost of child care while working or pursuing education, especially if you have modest or low incomes. Domestic partnerships and registered partnerships are important legal relationships available in several states, and the federal government should find ways to include them in family definitions where possible. Legally recognized common law marriages should also be included.63 Unmarried couples – same-sex and opposite-sex couples – without legal recognition should also be included to the extent possible.

Children were the family members most often included in the laws analyzed, appearing in 98% of them. Although adoptive relationships appear to be included more frequently at first glance – in 100% of bylaws – this is only because all child inclusions have been accepted for scoring purposes to include all children, including those who have been legally adopted. The frequencies should therefore be the same. The discrepancy stems from additional legislation that includes adoptive relationships between grandparents and great-uncles/aunts and their grandchildren and grandnephews/nieces, but excludes the middle generation.38 In addition, the census is important for clarity and ease of use and application; Only 29% of laws explicitly mention adoptive relationships. Similarly, only five laws specifically mention foster relationships and only six laws mention in loco parentis relationships. The lack of inclusion of these relationships is of particular concern to the LGBTQ community: same-sex couples raising children are seven times more likely to foster or raise an adopted child than their opposite-sex counterparts.39 Stepchildren were also explicitly included in only one law; Although stepparents were also counted as descendants and parents of a spouse for assessment purposes, or in any definition a selected family might include.40 Enumerating as many extended family members as possible – such as grandparents, grandchildren, step-parents, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, stepmates, adoptive parents and first cousins – would ensure that they are automatically included. This would reduce the burden of proof and explanation of inclusion in a broad category applicable to a law, such as: “any person who is related by blood or marriage”. However, when drafting legislation, legislators must ensure that a non-exhaustive list cannot be misinterpreted as an exhaustive list, thereby limiting a definition rather than expanding it. Virtually all legal definitions of the family could theoretically be extended. Therefore, the following selection of statutes was selected from each title represented in the dataset to demonstrate the wide variety of topics for which a definition of family is relevant. The examples were also chosen to represent the three categories into which laws on family definitions tend to fall.

The laws highlighted here are examples where the definition of family could be broadened. Relationships that are not included in the definition are noted as possible additions. Spouses were included in 91% of the laws. This is not surprising considering that the United States has a long history of promoting marriage and banning government as a method of social control.41 For example, in 2004, the U.S. Government Accounting Office found more than 1,000 provisions in federal law that based entitlement to benefits, rights, and privileges on marital status or otherwise such as marital status.42 Unfortunately, life partners, reciprocal beneficiaries and persons in registered partnerships are clearly excluded from the definitions in which “spouses” and are therefore not recognized as a family in federal law, despite the legal status granted by some states.43 Even when Obergefell v. Hodges granted marriage equality in 2015, domestic partnerships continue to be used as a form of relational recognition for LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ couples.44 Federal law should: Recognize this reality. Several general definitions were found in this analysis, but as we mentioned earlier, despite their scores, they were not broad enough. For example, the term “household” limits the inclusion of selected potential family members to those with whom one lives.

The Family Medical Leave Modernization Act, which is now pending, defines a selected family as “any other person related by blood or affinity whose close relationship is consistent with a family relationship.” 60 This is the current federal regulatory standard for the inclusion of selected families,61 and has been applied as such in various contexts since 1969.62 It is time for this definition to be enshrined in law. The report noted that the scope of what constitutes a family in federal law has not evolved to reflect the diversity of today`s families, leaving out many shared relationships. The results of the analysis of the statutes are first discussed with reference to these relationships. Then, the results are broken down by the location of the laws in the United States Code. Examples of the laws analyzed are then presented, which they include as a family and which could possibly be added to this definition. These laws were chosen to show both the diversity of topics covered by the dataset and the general areas in which laws that define the family tend to fall: benefits, exceptions and conflicts of interest. The highlighted laws represent proposals to eventually begin to expand the definition of family through federal law. Here are more general recommendations for creating more comprehensive definitions.

Ultimately, other legal definitions of family are drawn from lived reality, the more likely actual families are to be rendered invisible and excluded from benefits or services to which they should have legal access. The average American family is very different than it was a few decades ago. and guardianship of her husband. Also with regard to the relationship between parents and children, legal concepts such as guardianship, custody and legitimacy are associated with family power structures and the economic interests of the family.