Palmore v. Sidoti 466 U.S. 429 (1984)

• Author: Kenneth L. Karst
• Pages: 1875-1876

Page 1875

When Linda Palmore was divorced from Anthony Sidoti, a Florida court awarded custody of their daughter to Palmore.

Page 1876

Later, Sidoti sought custody on the ground that Palmore, a white woman, had been cohabiting with a black man, whom she shortly married. The state court changed the custody on the sole ground that the mother had "chosen for herself and her child, a life-style unacceptable to her father and to society." The child would, if she remained with her mother, be "more vulnerable to peer pressures" and would suffer from "social stigmatization." The Supreme Court unanimously reversed.

For the Court, Chief Justice WARREN E. BURGER reaffirmed the need for STRICT SCRUTINY of governmental action based on race. Racial prejudice indeed existed, but the potential injury from such private biases was not a constitutionally acceptable basis for the custody change. The decision has symbolic...