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Publication Date

1970

Abstract

The purpose of this Note is to demonstrate that the way is now clear to remove legally sanctioned discrimination against the illegitimate and to grant him the full citizenship denied him for centuries. Specifically, it is argued that since the illegitimate is treated equally with other children insofar as the mother-child relationship is concerned, it is but a simple extension of this status to afford the bastard the potentially more significant rights of the father-child relationship. Although the illegitimate has made some progress from his status of near nonexistence at common law, dearly there is much progress still to be made. Even though a considerable body of statutory law aids the illegitimate, problem areas, including the areas of intestate succession and recovery under statutory benefit programs, abound. Part II briefly explores the advances yet to be made by the illegitimate. Examples of discrimination against illegitimates inevitably raise the question of unequal protection of the laws, discussed in part III. In 1968, the United States Supreme Court first faced this issue in Levy v. Louisiana. The Court deemed Louisiana's wrongful death statute an unconstitutional deprivation of equal protection. By a reasoned reading of the Levy language and by conventional equal protection analysis, the rights of the father-child relationship can be ex- tended to the illegitimate. This Note considers the nature of the father- child relationship as a fundamental civil right, a status which requires the state to present a compelling governmental interest if it is to restrict this right by a statutory classification.

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