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No. Federal law always overrides state laws or state court orders.  The mother in this case is the only person with the automatic right to claim the children.  The father can only claim one or both children if they have a signed form 8332, or a signed piece of paper that contains the same information.  A copy of the divorce decree is not enough and will not be honored.  And even then, the child only qualifies the father for the $2000 child tax credit, and can't be used to qualify for head of household status or EIC, because those benefits always stay with the parent with majority custody and can't be waived or transferred.   Note however, that the father could go to the state court and ask for an order that the mother sign form 8332.  State courts don't like it when their orders are ignored, and the court has wide latitude to take action (punish) the mother if she ignores a court order.  My recommendation to the mother would be to sign the form before the court gets angry.  My recommendation to the father would be to go to court.  For the father, the best answer is probably to ask the court to reduce the child support payment by $2000 per year (the amount of the tax credit) and then let the mother claim both credits.  That way the father gets the same benefit in the end, without fighting over whether or not the mother will sign.  

It was my post....... and my question and you have not and are not providing any answers or insight to the issue...  and retorts like yours only make users not want to be a part of the community...... so as many do, I, too, will not make any more posts to the community...... 

Thanks, but I am well aware of Taxcaster..... I was only trying to let Intuit know that I was unhappy with this change... As did many others.... I would appreciate it if you dropped off of this post.  Your comments have not helped anyone on the post this far.

The deduction for seniors is gradually reduced if Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) is over $75,000 ($150,000 if married filing jointly), so if your income is over that amount you will not get the full $6,000 per person. If MAGI is $175,000 or more ($250,000 if married filing jointly) the deduction is eliminated completely. MAGI for purposes of this deduction is Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) plus the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, Foreign Housing Exclusion or Deduction, and excluded income from sources in Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. For most people MAGI will be the same as AGI.