The Bastard Finds His Father

Levy v. Louisiana1 and Glona v. American Guarantee & Liab. Ins. Co.2 may turn out to be two of the most significant cases of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1967 term. On the basis of the equal protection clause, these cases held that illegitimate children could recover for the wrongful death of their mother and that a mother could recover for the wrongful death of her illegitimate child. These holdings went against a long-standing interpretation of Louisiana's wrongful death act which had restricted such recov eries to legitimate children. On the surface, these cases seem innocuous enough, and so far they have generated little excite ment. Indeed, if the relationship between the illegitimate child and mother had been their only meaning, the cases would be unimportant because in nearly all states and particulars, this relationship today is the same as that between legitimate child and mother. However, the truly important question raised by Levy is whether and to what extent the manifold discriminations still imposed by state and federal law in the relationship between father and illegitimate child are subject to constitutional attack. The first judicial returns on this question now are coming in from several state supreme courts. (1) On the appealing and basic issue of the illegitimate child's right of support from his father, the Supreme Court of Missouri3 held that "the decisions of the United States Supreme Court compel the conclusion that the proper construction of our statutory provisions relating to the obligations and rights of