OFP For Fifty Years For Benefit of Adult Survives Multiple Challenges

In the Matter of:  Vanessa Yolanda Rew, and o/b/o T.C.B. and D.S.B., Minn.S.Ct., 4/30/2014.  Although not a criminal case, this opinion, on review from the court of appeals,  can impact criminal prosecutions simply from the outcome.  The central question presented here was whether a court can issue a fifty (50) year order for protection for the benefit of an adult and her two minor children.  There’s a statute for that, Minn.Stat. 518B.01, subd. 6a.  Justice Stras rejects a number of statutory and constitutional challenges to that fifty year OFP.  As to extending an OFP that long for the benefit of minor children, the court caps its run at age eighteen, when a parent’s authority to act on behalf of a minor child expires.