''Polovchak v. Meese'', 774 F.2d 731 (7th Cir. 1985),
was a federal court case involving a 12-year-old who did not want to leave the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and to return with his parents to
Soviet Ukraine
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
.
Walter Polovchak
Walter Polovchak (born 3 October 1967) is a Ukrainian-American man who, as a child, became the center of the legal case '' Polovchak v. Meese'' after he refused, at 12, to leave the United States to return to Ukraine, then part of the USSR, with h ...
was living in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
when his parents decided to return to
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, then part of the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. He objected, running away from his parents to the home of a cousin and requesting asylum, which prompted the case. His parents returned to the Soviet Union with his two siblings.
The sympathetic
Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over D ...
allowed the legal proceedings to drag on for years, with the result that by the time a final decision was rendered, Polovchak had turned 18. No longer a minor, he was able to remain in the United States.
A court ruled that parents who are citizens of another country cannot remove their own child from the United States to their native land over the objection of their child unless the child is first afforded a hearing, to determine whether living in another nation is in the child's interests.
See also
*
Elián González
Elián González Brotons (born December 6, 1993) is a Cuban technician who, as a child, became embroiled in a heated international custody and immigration controversy in 2000 involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, his father Ju ...
— legal case involving a child who wanted to return to
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
to live with his father.
References
External links
*
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit cases
1985 in United States case law
{{US-case-law-stub