From Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young's majority opinion Friday in In the Interest of H.S.:
Few principles in our history and traditions are as deeply rooted as the sanctity of the family. Fit parents, and not the government or anyone else, have the right and the corresponding responsibility to direct their children's upbringing and to be their children's primary source of protection and guidance.
At the same time, a parent's inability or unwillingness to satisfy basic, minimum standards of care can lead to abuse or neglect, which justifies governmental intervention to protect the children. The desired outcome of that intervention is a family's rehabilitation, the restoration of wayward parents to their proper roles, and the government's exit from the family's affairs.
In extreme cases, however, parents can forfeit their parental status altogether. When that happens, the government invokes the judicial process to pursue the termination of parental rights, after which parents and their children become strangers in the eyes of the law.
The strong presumption is that termination is not in a child's best interest, so a parental-termination order must always be a last resort and never a first impulse. Such an order risks offending the laws of nature and is impermissible under the laws of the United States and of Texas absent clear and convincing evidence both that the parent failed to discharge his obligations to his child and that the termination of parental rights is in the child's best interest. These heightened standards are required because termination affects the fundamental rights of all involved—not just of parents to their children but also of children to their parents.
This case requires us to apply these principles with respect to a married couple with three children. The government sought termination of both parents' rights to each child. A jury determined that the requisite grounds for termination had been proven as to both parents, and the trial court rendered judgment accordingly. The court of appeals affirmed. We likewise affirm as to Father, but we hold as a matter of law that the government has failed to establish that termination of Mother's rights is in the children's best interest. As to Mother, therefore, we reverse and render.
There's a lot going on in the opinion, which is nearly 10K words long, but here's a quick summary of the argument as to mother, with an interesting discussion related to divorce:
