My Country or My Child?: How State Enactment of the Uniform Deployed Parents Custody and Visitation Act Will Allow Service Members to Protect Their Country & Fight For Their Children

Shows that control of service member child custody disputes belongs to the states. Part I of this Comment broadly explains the current issue straining the already stressful lives of service members who are involved in child custody disputes while deployed or on active duty. Part II of this Comment will review the longstanding tradition within the legal realm that has allowed each state to control its family law matters. Part III will analyze the federal proposals and state statutes that have attempted to assist the court when making military child custody determinations and will show that those provisions have not been enough. Part IV will then explore the 2012 proposals from federal and state legal bodies, which could potentially change military child custody proceedings in the best and worst ways. Finally, Part V will integrate the aforementioned history and background information to show that the states must retain authority over military child custody claims in order to help our service members protect both their country and their children.