🔴 UPDATE — December 20, 2025

536 days since my children were kidnapped.

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General has responded and declined to investigate at this time, but invited additional information.

This is only the first response from six DOJ divisions. Others still have the authority to act.

👉 Please scroll to the Petition Updates section at the very bottom to read the full update and learn how you can help apply pressure.

👉The U.S. Department of Justice is the only federal entity with the authority to investigate systemic constitutional violations in family courts nationwide.

👉 This petition is still live — and your support is urgently needed.

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⚖️ Call on the DOJ to Investigate Family-Court Corruption and Protect Families Nationwide
This isn’t about politics—it’s about parents, children, and justice.

I know that in today’s climate, many people feel uneasy about the Department of Justice and the role it’s playing in national politics. I understand that completely.

But this petition isn’t about politics—it’s about families. You don’t have to agree or disagree with the DOJ’s current posture to recognize that something is terribly wrong in our family court system.

As a parent, I will do anything to protect children and families from a system that too often rewards false allegations, ignores evidence, and destroys lives in silence. And while I agree that in the past asking the DOJ to investigate family courts would have been met with an immediate “no,” I’m taking a calculated gamble that—right now may be the one moment in history where such an investigation is possible.

So please, don’t withhold your support simply because of how you feel about the DOJ.
This is not about helping them—it’s about using this unique moment in time to make them finally do their job.

The Department of Justice is an executive branch agency charged with enforcing federal law and ensuring public safety. And right now, they are the only entity with the legal authority and reach to investigate the widespread constitutional violations happening inside America’s family courts.

If we can get their attention now, it could open the door to the first-ever federal investigation into family court corruption and systemic abuse of power—a step that has been desperately needed for decades.

Your signature tells federal officials that parents across the country demand transparency, oversight, and accountability inside family courts—no politics, just justice.

This is my petition...

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For over a year I’ve been fighting to protect my children from a system that ignored the truth, rewarded false allegations, and stripped away our most basic constitutional rights.

I haven’t had my children in more than sixteen months, and I don’t even know if they are alive or safe.
The very system that was supposed to protect them has silenced every attempt I’ve made to bring them home.

This fight is not about proving I’m a capable parent—I already did that.
On October 23, 2024, after months of hearings and evidence, the State of Minnesota issued a court order stating that the State had no issue with me as a parent and affirming that I love and care for my children.

I am a devoted father with two grown children as well: one earning a Master of Public Health at the University of Minnesota and another a high-school senior preparing for college.

I’m not a new or inexperienced parent; I have a long, healthy record of raising successful, well-adjusted kids.

Yet despite that clear order and proof of my fitness, I still do not have my younger children.

My federal civil-rights case, Alvar v. State of Minnesota, is already underway.
It names 27 defendants—including the State of Minnesota itself; multiple judges; the court-appointed guardian ad litem; several counties and cities; numerous attorneys and their law firms; and a number of government-funded organizations.

That civil rights case documents systemic misconduct within the family-court process.
It moves forward on one path, but one parent alone can only go so far against an entire system.

With that many defendants—the State, several cities and counties, multiple judges, law firms with entire staffs, and organizations backed by public money—can you imagine how many attorneys I’m up against?

How large their resources are?

It’s daunting, but I’m a parent fighting for my children, and I have one thing they don’t: the truth.

Therefore, I will not give up and I will succeed.

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This moment also represents something extremely rare—a state custody case that has advanced into federal civil-rights court and now carries the potential for a Department of Justice investigation.

Few family-court cases ever reach this point.

If the DOJ acts, it could open the door to exposing how broken our family-court system is, spurring long-overdue national reform and accountability.

That’s why I have now formally asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open a separate criminal investigation that mirrors the constitutional violations detailed in my federal complaint.

The DOJ is empowered to investigate and prosecute public-official misconduct under:

18 U.S.C. §§ 241–242 (deprivation of rights under color of law)
18 U.S.C. § 1503 (obstruction of justice)
18 U.S.C. § 1512 (witness tampering)
18 U.S.C. § 1519 (destruction or concealment of evidence)
18 U.S.C. § 1030 (computer intrusion)
34 U.S.C. § 12601 (pattern or practice of constitutional violations)

These are the laws that authorize the DOJ to act when state systems fail to uphold the Constitution. By requesting this DOJ investigation, I’m asking for help where I need it most—resources and authority to fully investigate the wrongdoing already documented in my civil case.

✍️ Add your name now to demand a federal investigation into family-court corruption.

By signing this petition and helping me bring the DOJ into the process, you’re not just supporting one parent; you’re helping bring the truth to light and creating pressure for accountability across the country.

Ultimately, this is about reforming family courts so that no parent or child ever endures what we have.

This isn’t only about my family—it’s about a nationwide crisis that allows judges, guardian ad litems, and publicly funded agencies to act without oversight or accountability.

The record includes emails, text messages, phone and video recordings, law-enforcement investigations, sworn courtroom testimony, photographs, and witness statements—a body of evidence that should have ended this nightmare long ago. Instead, that same evidence was ignored.

For publishing a court-appointed official’s report that exposed these issues, I was fined, held in contempt, and even jailed.

Agencies that knew the truth refused to act; courts that saw the proof looked away. Every level of the system that should have provided protection became part of the obstruction.

Publicly funded organizations—guardians ad litem, advocacy centers, and legal-aid groups—took sides without ever verifying the facts. Their involvement gave false claims the appearance of legitimacy and buried the truth under bureaucracy and bias.

Why?

Because we’ve built a system that too often ignores mental health—the very factor at the heart of most family-court cases.

When mental-health issues go unrecognized or untreated, courts mistake symptoms for evidence and trauma for truth.

Instead of addressing the root causes, the system punishes the wrong parent and perpetuates the cycle of instability and harm.

Mental health must be a priority—especially in our family courts—if we ever want real justice and protection for children.

If that can happen with documented evidence—emails, recordings, sworn testimony, and court orders—imagine what happens to parents who have no evidence at all.

For every parent who can prove what happened, there are hundreds more who can’t, and they’re swallowed by the same system.

When family courts ignore evidence, disregard mental-health realities, and silence parents trying to protect their children, it isn’t just a personal tragedy—it’s a constitutional failure. That’s why this investigation matters and why reform can’t wait.

Family courts operate behind closed doors, without juries, transparency, or accountability. When rights are violated in criminal court, the Department of Justice steps in; when the same violations happen in family court, no one does.
That must change—now.

Please sign this petition to urge the U.S. Department of Justice to open a formal investigation into criminal conduct and civil-rights violations within America’s family-court system—utilizing my case as a catalyst and real-world evidence of how broken the system has become.

Your signature will help bring national attention, encourage the DOJ to act, and—most importantly—push forward the reform our families and children desperately need.

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📣 Learn More, Get Involved, and Share:

Visit https://www.ryanalvar.com/post/a-rare-opportunity-for-real-family-court-reform-my-doj-investigation-request to read “A Rare Opportunity for Real Family-Court Reform: My DOJ Investigation Request,” which explains the full story behind this petition—how my state custody case advanced to federal civil-rights court, why I’ve formally asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation, and how this unique moment could expose the corruption, bias, and constitutional violations occurring in family courts nationwide.

The post also includes the actual DOJ briefing memoranda and the full federal civil-rights complaint, available for the public to read and download, so you can see exactly what was submitted and what’s being requested from each federal office.

👉 Visit www.ryanalvar.com to read court documents, follow updates on both the state and federal cases, and learn how you can help advocate for family-court reform nationwide.

👉 Visit Real Dad to read about the Real Dad initiative to empower unmarried fathers to take legal steps toward establishing their parental rights.

👉 You can also follow and share updates on Facebook to help spread awareness.

👉 Support the Fight: GoFundMe – Help Cover Legal Costs & Reform Efforts

Thank you for taking the time to read, sign, and share this petition.
Your support means more than words can express—not just to me, but to every parent and child who’s been silenced by a broken system.
Together, we can bring transparency, accountability, and compassion back to family courts and make sure the Constitution protects all families, everywhere.

Ryan William Alvar

Parent and Plaintiff, Pro Se

491 days since my children were kidnapped. This fight is for them—and for every parent still waiting to be heard.