Whether a state court's application of a 'best interests' standard in custody/parental responsibilities filed by a person other than a parent, violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

QUESTIONS PRESENTED This case involves a petition for custody/parental responsibilities by an alleged paternal grandmother, Crystal Young and her husband over one of Kourtney’s two minor children to which no judicial parentage has been determined. Kourtney filed a Combined Motion to Dismiss, challenging the petition on its face as well as the jurisdiction of the court based on issues of capacity and standing. The Illinois trial court declined to address the motion and set the matter for hearing on the threshold issues raised in the motion and a hearing on best interests at the same time. After several days of trial spanning several months, the trial court awarded custody/parental decision making and primary parenting time to Petitioner and her husband based on a best interest standard and separated the minor child from her mother and only sibling. The Illinois Appellate Court, 4*6 District affirmed the trial courts decision and, in a departure from authority, opined that the issue of standing as an element of the cause of action that must only be pleaded and proven at trial. The Illinois Supreme Court declined to consider the case. The questions presented are: (1) Whether a state court’s application of a “best interests” standard in custody/parental responsibilities filed by a person other than a parent, violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? (2) Whether 750 ILCS 5/601.2(b)(3) violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?, and i ii (3) Whether a state court’s application of the “best interests” standard in custody/parental responsibilities actions filed by a person other than a parent under 750 ILCS 5/601.2(b)(3), without first addressing threshold issues of jurisdiction, capacity, standing or fitness, violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? ii