As of Wednesday, September 18, 32 organizations and lawmakers had filed or co-signed briefs to the Supreme Court of Texas, asking the court to intervene on behalf of the Pardo family and send four-year-old Drake Pardo back home.
The case has been pending at the Supreme Court of Texas for the past three weeks. Yesterday was the deadline for Child Protective Services (CPS) to file its response to the family’s request for emergency intervention by the Texas Supreme Court.
Instead, CPS filed a request for a 10-day extension. The Texas Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether that extension will be granted.
In the agency’s brief at the Fifth Court of Appeals, CPS made a bizarre and jaw-dropping argument: that Ashley and Daniel Pardo have nothing to complain about because CPS is giving Drake the same medical care that Ashley and Daniel would have given him.
CPS bases this argument on the theory that there is no reason for the court to intervene provided that Drake is receiving the medical care everyone agrees that he needs. To support its argument, CPS outlined in extreme detail how Ashley and Daniel were already planning to give Drake the medical care he needs and how the two parents have stated repeatedly that they planned to follow the recommendations of Drake’s doctors.
However, rather than coming to the rather obvious conclusion that Drake should be returned home, CPS argued instead that they might as well be allowed to keep Drake if he is receiving the medical care he needs. A more calloused view of family rights can hardly be imagined.
It is yet to be seen whether CPS will maintain this argument at the Supreme Court of Texas, where a flurry of support for the family has arisen through the filing of the following briefs:
- Brief by Texas Home School Coalition on Aug. 30, joined by 22 state lawmakers and five statewide and national organizations.
- Brief by Heritage Defense Foundation on Sep. 4.
- Brief by Alliance Defending Freedom on Sep. 17.
- Brief by Texas Public Policy Foundation on Sep. 18, joined by 12 state lawmakers.
The Supreme Court of Texas has also requested a brief from the Texas solicitor general’s office to explain the opinion of the state of Texas regarding the relevant laws in the Pardo case. This type of invitation is only extended one to five times per year and indicates that the Supreme Court of Texas is taking the issue very seriously (although it does not indicate which direction the court may be leaning). Although CPS is a state agency, they represent themselves in CPS cases and are not represented by the solicitor general. Thus, the solicitor general, who works for the Texas attorney general, will be filing a brief as a third party.
The solicitor general’s office requested and was granted a 30-day extension to file their brief by Oct. 18. In light of the excellent attorney general opinion in defense of parental rights released back in February, we are hopeful that a brief from the solicitor general would be beneficial to the Pardo family. However, the 30-day delay in the case unnecessarily adds to the trauma that the family is already experiencing, requiring them to continue pursuing additional burdensome and costly trial strategies.
Today, the Houston Chronicle released the first in a series of articles detailing how cases similar to the Pardo’s case often lead to the destruction of families based on little to no evidence against the family. The problem has become systematic and statewide.
The Supreme Court of Texas has the chance to set right the severe abuses in this case that no other court or state employee has been willing to correct thus far. We are praying that they will intervene on behalf of the Pardo family and do so quickly.
To date, nearly 40,000 people have signed the petition demanding that Drake be returned home. More than 2.2 million people have viewed the viral video of Drake’s case. Thirty-two state lawmakers and organizations have intervened in the case to defend the family. People around the world have heard about the case and expressed their shock that these abuses could happen in Texas.
Hopefully the Supreme Court of Texas will add their name to that list, end this family’s three-month nightmare, and set a precedent that these abuses are not permitted in the state of Texas.