Voices on child support
Justice Clarence Thomas
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, dissenting
The exact words were found in the primary source linked below (testimony, book page, report or article), at the page given.
"When fathers fail in their duty to pay child support, children suffer."
Source
Turner v. Rogers, 564 U.S. 431 (2011), Thomas, J., dissenting, U.S. Supreme Court (U.S. Reports via GPO govinfo), 2011-06-20, 564 U.S. 458 (PDF page 28 of 31) (opinion). Checked 2026-10-13.
Context
From Part III of Justice Thomas's dissent, which only Justice Scalia joined (Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito joined Parts I-B and II only). He argued the majority's due-process balancing ignored the interests of children and custodial mothers, cited state reports that civil contempt is effective when other tools fail, and said whether to threaten incarceration is a policy judgment for lawmakers.
The passage it comes from
When fathers fail in their duty to pay child support, children suffer. See Cancian, Meyer, & Han, Child Support: Responsible Fatherhood and the Quid Pro Quo, 635 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 140, 153 (2011) (finding that child support plays an important role in reducing child poverty in single-parent homes); cf. Sorensen & Zibman, Getting To Know Poor Fathers Who Do Not Pay Child Support, 75 Soc. Serv. Rev. 420, 423 (2001) (finding that children whose fathers reside apart from them are 54 percent more likely to live in poverty than their fathers). Nonpayment or inadequate payment can press children and mothers into poverty.
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