Jeff Hall, a white supremacist leader in the Los Angeles area, was shot to death by his 10-year-old son on
May 1. In an account of the neo-Nazi's life, the New York Times notes
that Hall managed to win custody of the children from his ex-wife. Can a judge
take extreme political views into account when deciding a custody battle?

Yes. Custody disputes are decided under the vague
"best interests of the child" standard,
and judges are allowed to weigh just about any factor—excepting race, which is
off-limits, and religion under certain circumstances.
While few judges have assigned custody based solely on a parent's politics, many
have mentioned it as a major issue. During World War II, a father in New York
was denied custody in part because he had been "contaminated with the germ of Nazism." Garden-variety
racist parents and sexual libertines
have also lost out. Judges typically couch their decisions in terms of the
day-to-day negative effects that a parent's unpopular views might have on the
child's mental and social well-being, rather than the risk that the child will
himself adopt the belief system. For this reason, warring parents sometimes hire
child psychologists to testify that a spouse's political views are causing the
child turmoil. Living in a white supremacist household, for example, might lead
to conflicts at school. Preparing for an imminent Armageddon could make a child
confused or depressed