A Minneapolis man petitioned for custody of his daughter after he split from his wife, and his wife converted to Old Order Amish. He learned his daughter would not continue school after the eighth grade, a common Amish practice. He won custody, but afterward his daughter disappeared, and was  believed to be living in an Amish […]

An Alabama woman ignited a bitter custody dispute with her ex-husband involving her only daughter after she embraced a more conservative kind of Christianity. In 2003 a judge awarded custody of the girl to her father, reasoning that her mother’s strict Christian practices were damaging the girl. Read about the case in a Feb. 13, 2008, […]

An Oregon man who converted to Judaism wanted his son circumcised against his ex-wife’s wishes. In 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the case. The state Supreme Court ruled that given the boy’s age a lower court should ascertain the teen’s own wishes. Read about the case in an Oct. 6, 2008, article from The Oregonian.

Read a Dec. 29, 2009, article from the Orlando Sentinel about Rifqa Bary, a girl caught in the middle of her parents’ custody battle. A judge ultimately ruled that Bary could stay in foster care until she turned 18 or reconcile with her family on her own terms.

A Chicago couple, Joseph and Rebecca Reyes, are involved in a bitter custody case that centers on a court order barring the father from exposing their daughter to non-Jewish religions. The mother is Jewish, he is Catholic, and he had the girl baptized after the couple split. On Jan. 17, 2010, Joseph Reyes took his […]

Lisa Miller was ordered to relinquish custody of Isabella Miller-Jenkins on Jan. 1, 2010, but failed to do so, leading to further legal proceedings. Read about the case in a July 28, 2012, article from The New York Times.

Ellen Marrus is co-director of the Center for Children, Law & Policy at the University of Houston Law Center.

Derek H. Davis is dean of the College of Humanities and the Graduate School at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas. He is the author of publications on church and state issues and on religious freedom.

Paul Bennett is director of the child advocacy clinic at the University of Arizona’s College of Law in Tucson.