For parents who are going through a divorce, child custody is one of the issues that must be resolved. The circumstances surrounding the custody dispute will dictate whether or not the court has to settle it or whether the parties are capable of handling the issue outside of court. This can depend a lot on the existing relationship between the parties in light of the break up.
Military service members are often negatively impacted by court mandated child custody. Because those serving our country are often deployed overseas for extended periods of time, their deployment was being used against them when it came to child custody matters. In order to avoid this type of situation occurring and disadvantaging those in the military, Congress passed a bill that would prevent military men and women from losing custody of their children simply because of their service.
If the bill is signed by the President, those in the military will be on equal footing with the non-service member parent. Even with this bill, there is still a legal process that military individuals have to follow. The bill merely takes away the disadvantage that the military individuals were being subjected to. With this disadvantage out of the way, the courts would be able to go about the business of applying the same criteria to military custody cases as it does to non-military custody cases.
Child custody is difficult enough for folks without additional barriers to the process. Everyone going through a custody battle should be given a fair shot.