Henry Billings Brown,
Cope v. Cope — Opinion of the Court
“ Legislation admitting illegitimate children to the right of succession is undoubtedly in derogation of the common law, and should be strictly construed, and hence it has generally been held that laws permitting such children, whose parents have since married, to inherit, do not apply to the fruits of an adulterous intercourse. ”
Henry Billings Brown,
Cope v. Cope — Opinion of the Court
“ Not only does congress refrain from adding to the odium which popular opinion visits upon this innocent but unfortunate class of children, but it makes them the special object of its solicitude, and at the same time offers to the parents an inducement, in the nature of a locus penitentiae, to discontinue their unlawful cohabitation. ”
Henry Billings Brown,
Cope v. Cope — Opinion of the Court
“ No law will be declared void, because it may indirectly, or by a possible and not a necessary construction, be repugnant to an annulling act. Its direct and proximate results are alone to be considered. While, as before observed, the act may have been passed in view of the existing state of things, and as an indirect method of recognizing the legitimacy of polygamous children, it has no tendency in itself to shield or countenance polygamy so far as it applies to children. Legislation for the protection of children born in polygamy is not necessarily legislation favorable to polygamy. ”
