## Facts

- Charles LeRoy Alsager, Sr., and Darlene Lauvern Alsager were the natural parents of six children.
- In June 1969, following neighbor complaints, a juvenile court probation officer removed all six children from the home after a brief visit, without prior notice to the parents.
- In May 1970, the Juvenile Division of the Polk County District Court terminated the Alsagers’ parental rights to five of their six children under Iowa Code § 232.41.
- Iowa Code § 232.41 authorized termination on broadly stated grounds, including that parents had “substantially and continuously or repeatedly refused to give the child proper parental care and protection” or were “unfit by reason of conduct or condition.”
- The Alsagers filed a federal civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking declaratory relief and damages, alleging that the statute was unconstitutional on its face and as applied and that the state proceedings violated due process.
- The Alsagers alleged the termination petition used conclusory labels (e.g., lack of proper care and “unfit parents”) without specific factual allegations and without clear notice of the governing legal criteria.
- After an initial refusal to reach the merits, the case was remanded from the Eighth Circuit; the district court found the dispute ripe and proceeded to decide the constitutional claims.

## Issues

1. Whether Iowa Code § 232.41’s termination grounds (including “proper parental care and protection” and “unfit”) were unconstitutionally vague when used to permanently terminate parental rights.
2. Whether due process required the state to provide parents specific notice of the factual allegations supporting termination, rather than conclusory assertions.
3. Whether due process required notice of the legal criteria (and related decisional standards) the court would apply in deciding whether to terminate parental rights.

## Decision

- The court held that the challenged statutory standards and the procedures used in the Alsagers’ termination proceedings violated the Due Process Clause.
- The court concluded that the statute’s broad grounds for termination failed to give parents adequate notice of prohibited or disqualifying conduct and failed to supply sufficiently definite standards to constrain decision-making.
- The court concluded that the termination petition’s lack of specific factual allegations denied the Alsagers meaningful notice and a fair opportunity to defend.
- The court granted declaratory relief invalidating the statute’s operation in the Alsagers’ case and, to a substantial extent, the statute’s standards as constitutionally deficient.

## Legal Principles

- Parental rights constitute a protected liberty interest; permanent termination requires heightened procedural and substantive due process protections.
- A termination statute must provide sufficiently definite standards to (1) give parents fair notice of what conduct may justify termination and (2) limit arbitrary or subjective application.
- Procedural due process in termination proceedings requires notice that is reasonably calculated to inform parents of the specific factual basis for the proposed termination.
- Due process also requires notice of the legal grounds and criteria that will control the termination decision, not merely conclusory characterizations of parental inadequacy.

## Conclusion

The court ruled that Iowa’s parental-rights termination framework, as applied to the Alsagers, violated due process because the statutory grounds were impermissibly vague and the parents were not given adequate notice of the specific factual allegations and legal criteria governing termination.


Alsager v. District Court of Polk County, 406 F. Supp. 10 (S.D. Iowa 1975)