Law Commons^™

Tipping The Balance In Favor Of Justice: Due Process And The Thirteenth And Nineteenth Amendments In Child Removal From Battered Mothers, Shima Baradaran-Robison

BYU Law Review

After Sharwline Nicholson was assaulted by her boyfriend for the first time, the Administration for Child Services (“ACS”) of New York took her children without a court proceeding and temporarily placed them with foster parents. This action was particularly surprising because the children had not been abused by either their father or their mother. Without determining who was at fault, ACS concluded that Nicholson was unfit to parent because she had “engage[d] in acts of domestic violence,” even though she had not assaulted her children or her boyfriend but was only assaulted herself. Nicholson’s experience was not unique, as she …