Parental rights without a hearing
In Re Ann Lutnes, Petitioner
In brief
- Where it stands
- Dismissed
Petition denied.
- What it’s about
- Ann Lutnes asked whether a state court could continue handling her parental-rights case without a required hearing, whether she could compel the hearing, and whether alleged clerk obstruction excused state procedural requirements.
- Who it affects
- The refusal resolved only Lutnes's request for Supreme Court review; it did not decide her claims about the state-court process.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.

What it's about
The Supreme Court refused to hear the case (denied review) and did not decide those questions.
The petition centered on a hearing that Lutnes said state law required before the court continued deciding parental rights.
Question presented
1. Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state court from exercising continuing jurisdiction over fundamental parental liberty interests when the mandatory post-deprivation hearing required by statute to establish that jurisdiction never lawfully occurred. 2. Whether a writ of mandamus lies to compel a state court to conduct the post deprivation hearing required by statute and to rule upon a timely jurisdictional challenge before adjudicating fundamental parental rights, where the trial court refused to rule on that challenge and the state’s highest court dismissed the only available extraordinary remedy on procedural grounds caused by clerk obstruction. 3. Whether exhaustion of state remedies is excused under McCarthy v. Madigan, 503 U.S. 140 (1992), when court personnel prevented compliance with the procedural conditions required to maintain the state extraordinary writ proceeding.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
AI analysis generated: Decision Record
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
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Brief added: Petition
Sources
Primary materials from the Court and the parties. Grounded in docket records and cited sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.