76
Souter, J., concurring in judgment
state statute by the trial court, ante, at 68-73, are not before us and do not call for turning any fresh furrows in the "treacherous field" of substantive due process. Moore v. East Cleveland, 431 U. S. 494, 502 (1977) (opinion of Powell, J.).
The Supreme Court of Washington invalidated its state statute based on the text of the statute alone, not its application to any particular case.1 Its ruling rested on two independently sufficient grounds: the failure of the statute to require harm to the child to justify a disputed visitation order, In re Smith, 137 Wash. 2d 1, 17, 969 P. 2d 21, 29 (1998), and the statute's authorization of "any person" at "any time" to petition for and to receive visitation rights subject only to a free-ranging best-interests-of-the-child standard, id., at 20-21, 969 P. 2d, at 30-31. Ante, at 63. I see no error in the second reason, that because the state statute authorizes any person at any time to request (and a judge to award) visitation rights, subject only to the State's particular best-1 The Supreme Court of Washington made its ruling in an action where three separate cases, including the Troxels', had been consolidated. In re Smith, 137 Wash. 2d 1, 6-7, 969 P. 2d 21, 23-24 (1998). The court also addressed two statutes, Wash. Rev. Code § 26.10.160(3) (Supp. 1996) and former Wash. Rev. Code § 26.09.240 (1994), 137 Wash. 2d, at 7, 969 P. 2d, at 24, the latter of which is not even at issue in this case. See Brief for Petitioners 6, n. 9; see also ante, at 61. Its constitutional analysis discussed only the statutory language and neither mentioned the facts of any of the three cases nor reviewed the records of their trial court proceedings below. 137 Wash. 2d, at 13-21, 969 P. 2d, at 27-31. The decision invalidated both statutes without addressing their application to particular facts: "We conclude petitioners have standing but, as written, the statutes violate the parents' constitutionally protected interests. These statutes allow any person, at any time, to petition for visitation without regard to relationship to the child, without regard to changed circumstances, and without regard to harm." Id., at 5, 969 P. 2d, at 23 (emphasis added); see also id., at 21, 969 P. 2d, at 31 ("RCW 26.10.160(3) and former RCW 26.09.240 impermissibly interfere with a parent's fundamental interest in the care, custody and companionship of the child" (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)).
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