Lozano v. Montoya Alvarez (572 U.S. 1)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 5, 2014 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 572 U.S. 1 · 134 S. Ct. 1224
- Decided
- March 5, 2014
- Term
- October Term 2013
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. When a parent abducts a child and flees to another country, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction generally requires that country to return the child immediately if the other parent requests return within one year. The question in this case is whether that 1-year period is subject to equitable tolling when the abducting parent conceals the child's location from the other parent. We hold that equitable tolling is not available. I To address "the problem of international child abductions during domestic disputes," Abbott v. Abbott, 560 U.S. 1, 8, 130 S.Ct. 1983, 176 L.Ed.2d 789 (2010), in 1980 the Hague Conference on Private International Law adopted the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Hague Convention or Convention), T.I.A.S. No. 11670, S. Treaty Doc. No. 99-11 (Treaty Doc.). The Convention states two primary objectives: "to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in any Contracting State," and "to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law of one Contracting State are effectively respected in the other Contracting States." Art. 1, id., at 7. To those ends, the Convention's "central operating feature" is the return of the child. Abbott, 560 U.S., at 9, 130 S.Ct. 1983. That remedy, in effect, lays venue for the…
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