Also known as: nonsupports · non-support · failure to support · criminal nonsupport
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The failure to provide financial or other support to a person whom one is legally obligated to maintain, such as a child or spouse.
Luis left town months before Rosa gave birth and sent no money or messages. When he later objected to the adoption, the court examined his complete absence of support and contact. Because he never manifested parental responsibility, the court waived his consent and allowed the adoption to proceed.
After consenting to his wife's artificial insemination, a man later refused to pay any expenses for the resulting child. Prosecutors charged him with nonsupport. The court held that his active participation in creating the child imposed the same support duties as biological parenthood.
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Redhail owed years of child support and could not obtain a marriage license under state law until the arrears were paid. The statute treated ongoing nonsupport as a barrier to new family formation. The Court struck the law because less restrictive collection tools existed.
A former spouse moved for summary judgment on unpaid child support after the obligor produced no evidence of payments. The court granted the motion because the record contained no genuine dispute that nonsupport had occurred for the claimed period.
Residents picketed a business owner who had fallen behind on court-ordered support for his children. The protest focused on the owner's failure to meet his legal obligations. The Court protected the picketing as speech on a matter of public concern.
A low-level state employee hired under a political patronage system stopped paying ordered child support. When enforcement proceedings began, the employee argued the hiring itself was unconstitutional. The Court addressed the patronage claim separately from the independent nonsupport obligation.
Nonsupport combined with absence of contact and failure to register or admit paternity permits waiver after notice and hearing. The court examines whether the father manifested parental responsibility before the adoption placement.
Nonsupport is a crime in most states when a person willfully fails to provide required support to a child or spouse. Civil enforcement tools remain available even without a criminal conviction.
A parent is barred from inheriting if clear and convincing evidence shows the parent's rights could have been terminated for nonsupport before the child's death. Termination of rights also bars inheritance.
Occasional prenatal rides without financial support, formal acknowledgment, or registration usually fall short. Courts require actual manifestations of responsibility such as regular support payments and willingness to assume custody.
…upon the right to marry. The State may enforce support obligations through wage assignments, civil contempt proceedings, criminal nonsupport proceedings, and other means. The State may also require that persons with support obligations post bonds or make other financial arrangements to ensure that their support obligations are…