“The Supreme Judicial Court and the Supreme Court of the United States
have recognized that parents have a fundamental interest in their relationships
with their children that is constitutionally protected. This interest is one of the
‘liberty’ interests protected by art. 10 of the Massachusetts Declaration of
Rights, and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution. However, parents’ interests in their relationships with
their children are not absolute, because ‘[t]he overriding principle in
determining [the rights of a parent to custody] must be the best interest of the
child.’. . . In custody disputes between parents there is no constitutional or
statutory entitlement to any particular form of custody.”
