This case could expand the requirement that parents pay for college for their of age children to non-divorced parents, for New Jersey. The rest of the country could follow suit.

The problem I see with this is the court would basically be saying every family with a college age child has to be vetted and their finances monitored by a court. That seems a bridge-too-far, in an age of limited government resources and increasing concerns about privacy and government overreach.

Perhaps it would simply create a cause-of-action a child of non-divorced parents could wield at their leisure. Still, then the parents have to hire a lawyer and likely the court would require the child have representation and since the whole point of the proceeding is the child doesn't have money likely the parents have to pay for the kid's lawyer as well...by the time they go through this process, they'd spend as much on lawyers as they'd have spent on college.

Whereas divorced parents are already in the system and so forcing them to pay for their kids after age 18 is just a continuation of an on-going process.

Hard to see the courts forcing non-divorced parents to pay up without some supporting action from the legislature, too invasive of the intact family and too costly overall.

Yeah, you get divorced, you get fucked (unfortunately); but that shouldn't transfer back to intact families.

At the end of the day, however, this girl is really only asking to have the same rights/privileges a child of divorce has. Not only in terms of finances, but also in terms of rules/curfew. Imagine her parents were divorced and living in separate houses and the "custodial" parent tried to set a curfew or interfere with whom she dated? She'd simply bug out to the other parent's house and claim mom/dad was being mean to them. And then ping-pong back and forth as needed.

Perceived fairness issues aside, not a good idea to let the conditions of divorced families dictate the behavior and conduct of intact families.

Given the recent spate of scientists yammering on about how our adolescent brains (in most individuals) are only about half-way matured by age 18, perhaps cases like this will cause legislators to reconsider age 18 as a mostly blanket 'age of majority'. 21 was the age of majority throughout the United States until the early 1970's:



The 26th Amendment (which lowered the voting age to 18 throughout the U.S as a reward for 18 year-olds fighting and dying in Nam) inspired pretty much all states to drop the age of majority to 18, with a few exceptions. 19 is still the age of majoirty today, in 2014, in IA, MT, NE. 20 still in Hawaii. And Mississippi, probably just rebellious back then and deciding not to follow the federal government's lead, still regards 21 as the general age of majority, with exceptions carved out for things like adult criminal culpability (gee, i wonder why they do that).

18 year-olds universally got the vote in 1971 (many states already allowed 18+ voting) and immediately went out in 1972 and did this:




21 is still the age of majority in Illinois and other states for certain uses, especially beneficial transfers under estates and trusts laws. Illinois' 'Uniform Transfers to Minors Act' uses 21 as the age of majority for some transfers.

Interesting that Illinois had a bifurcated age of majority ( 21 for men, 18 for women ) until 1975 (I believe) when it dropped to 18 for everyone,

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

COX: Is this idea that the brains of 18 year olds aren't fully developed a matter of settled science?

AAMODT: Yes. The car rental companies got to it first, but neuroscientists have caught up and brain scans show clearly that the brain is not fully finished developing until about age 25.

COX: To not be too clinical in the spin that we put on this, what parts of the brain are we talking about and what changes happen between the ages of 18 and, let's say, 25?

AAMODT: So the changes that happen between 18 and 25 are a continuation of the process that starts around puberty, and 18 year olds are about halfway through that process. Their prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed. That's the part of the brain that helps you to inhibit impulses and to plan and organize your behavior to reach a goal.

And the other part of the brain that is different in adolescence is that the brain's reward system becomes highly active right around the time of puberty and then gradually goes back to an adult level, which it reaches around age 25 and that makes adolescents and young adults more interested in entering uncertain situations to seek out and try to find whether there might be a possibility of gaining something from those situations.

I saw that but a couple posts up made it seem as this case might try to do is change that.

Why is she dressed like me in those courtroom pics? A button up, v neck sweater and Khakis?

Belle Knox, scary thin body but she has that Jersey girl face that I so adore.

i crashed my car into a bridge. i don't care. i love it.

Im pretty hammered right now.

Do you have a link to the mature brain stuff? I'd like to read about that.

If that is in my head when I lay down to sleep tonight......there will be revenge. It will be ugly.

I hate you.

My daughter used to tell me how I intimidated her boyfriends. I was never mean & always polite.I attribute it to the shaved head/goateewearin/big boned look I have.

The guy she is marrying has me pegged for a dufus,so no problem there.

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

You must look like an older version of me, Jimmy.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

you look like a younger version of George the Animal Steele?

You both attend Morris Catholic High School in New Jersey?

Rachel Canning, the New Jersey high school cheerleader who sued her parents for child support and college tuition, filed a restraining order against her boyfriend this week. It totally sucks, but her parents were kind of right about this guy.

According to The Star-Ledger, Canning says 18-year-old Lucas Kitzmiller choked her during an argument last Sunday. When Canning was suing her parents earlier this year, part of the reason they kicked her out (or she left) was the fact that she wouldn't stop dating the guy. Her parents joined her in court to file the restraining order.

Kitzmiller hasn't commented on the dispute or the court visit. Canning's parents previously blamed him for making her "obsessed" with alcohol and losing her spot as cheer captain.

Canning dropped the suit against her parents in March and moved back in with them.

According to The Star-Ledger, Canning says 18-year-old Lucas Kitzmiller choked her during an argument last Sunday.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.