High court to hear child-custody issue

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to rule whether Delaware's statute permitting permanent removal of children from unfit parents is too vague to pass constitutional muster. Nearly all states have such laws. But attorneys for a couple contesting Delaware's called it "the vaguest of the vague" because it does not precisely outline under what circumstances a parent is "not fitted" to rear a child.

The justices will hear arguments in the new term starting in October on the parents' claim that the lack of specific language in the statute infringes their constitutional guarantee of due process under law.