Elizabeth C. v. Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services

Whether the Fourteenth Amendment due process requirement articulated in Santosky v Kramer, 455 U.S. 745 (1982) that parental rights only be terminated upon clear and convincing evidence of parental unfitness requires that such a finding be made close in time to the termination of parental rights by the state or may be based upon a finding of parental unfitness by clear and convincing evidence made years earlier when the child was initially placed into the custody of the state.

Whether any constitutional due process deficiency in a procedure where parental rights are terminated based upon a finding of parental unfitness by clear and convincing evidence made years earlier is cured if the state also finds parental unfitness by a preponderance of the evidence closer in time to the termination of parental rights.