Equal Protection Guarantees in Child Custody Determinations: The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits family courts from rationing parenting time or awarding primary custody based on gender stereotypes, maternal preferences, or traditional marital roles (Palmore v. Sidoti). Both fit parents possess equal, fundamental constitutional standing to raise their children. State practices creating unequal custody awards violate constitutional mandates unless justified by a compelling state interest executed through least restrictive means.
In most states equal parenting bills are not addressing the problems that best interest leaves in place when it comes to a judge using best interest to get out of issuing an equal parenting bill. 
We have been complaining about best interest making equal parenting bills moot for years.
And best interest being problematic because it causes parents to still have to prove to the court that it is in the child's best interest to have the equal parenting. Texas might just be the first state to become the welcome exception to this problem.
While SB 816 is not a "sister" Bill it puts the teeth back into the equal parenting bill by putting into Texas Family Code Statute 153.002 BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD that the best interest presumption is that both fit parents determine the best interest of the child first.
SB 816 serves as a companion to the equal parenting Bill, HB 453, filed by House Representative James White as it provides protection for parents seeking equal parenting by requiring the law to recognize both parents determine the best interest of the child unless the parent has failed to "adequately provide" for the child.
Senator Campbell has brilliantly proposed a Bill that, with HB 453, puts the power back into the hands of the fit parents!
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