the case before the Supreme Court not only pits parents against grandparents it could potentially redefine what is a family here to talk about this emotionally charged debate is family law attorney John Maggio he joins us this morning on early edition John all 50 states have some sort of law addressing grandparents right so why is it that the US Supreme Court is taking up the Washington State case what's very usual the Supreme Court historically has stayed out of family law matters and so no one really knows but they have the opportunity to define the family so to speak to talk about what kind of family we want raising our children in this country what's the confusion today that well you think about where we were two or three decades ago the Ozzie and Harriet the sort of wistful thought of an intact family raising children well that really is not reflective of society today we have grandparents living lovers stepparents persons that are not even biologically related to children that are raising them we need to have some understandings as to what standards we're going to use to determine which rights they have we've actually moved a little bit more to a concept of a psychological model that is we're not solely determined by biological relation but in fact the nature and quality of the relationship that you and I might have to the child and that's very different from where we've been so what is your understanding of what grandparents rights are generally speaking across state lines well every state recognizes that there are certain circumstances under which we're going to permit grandparents to visit but they vary widely and you have to remember that these cases arise in the context of parents objecting to the grandparents visitation and so we have to determine is it in the best interest of the children if it's in the best interest of the children do we have to go further and show that it would harm the children for them not to see their grandparents how far is the supreme court likely to rule because they can actually punt this case and make a very broad ruling and kick it back to the states if they want to I think the likelihood of that is great because the enormity of the question is something I'm not sure they're really prepared and that's not a slur against the Supreme Court but you think of the daunting task of defining for the 21st century what a blended family might be in the context of 1.4 million grandparents raising grandchildren in the context of living lovers of same-sex couples raising children it would be very difficult for them to impose upon the states I think a definition that's going to work for all of these situations very quickly I may be reaching a bit on this but if the Supreme Court were to rule on this issue would it have any likely effect on the Ilion Gonzalez case the case of the Cuban boy it's not likely but they could in fact broaden the concept of family to give the Gonzalez boy rights that he might not or his relatives in this country might not otherwise have but again I think it's somewhat unlikely I think the Supreme Court is likely to decide this case and very narrow grounds that's very interesting to likelihood that a six-year-old boy might have legal rights to determine his own future versus the relatives and the father in Cuba absolutely all right thank you very much Don Mayan for joining you're welcome