Hearing on Child Custody Bill

The Alabama House Judiciary Committee will have a hearing a week from today, on April 13, on House Bill 650, the fathers’ rights custody bill. The bill would mandate equal time parenting in nearly every case.

The primary support for this proposal comes from fathers’ rights groups. In its announcement of the hearing, the Montgomery Advertiser quotes somebody named Alan Rusmisel, the vice president of a group called the Alabama Coalition for Fathers and Children, as saying the bill would replace “old, antiquated joint custody statutes from Alabama divorce law.” He’s describing the Alabama joint custody statute, which became effective in 1997.