New York City families filed a class-action lawsuit against the City, alleging that the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) unconstitutionally abuses its “emergency removal” power to take children from their parents without a court order.

ACS routinely misuses this power, meant only for rare, truly urgent situations when there is not enough time to get a court order. This government overreach causes deep and lasting harm, especially to Black and Latino families who are disproportionately targeted.

ACS often violates families’ basic constitutional rights by conducting emergency removals in situations that are not true emergencies. ACS’s own data show that most child removals now happen without prior judicial authorization – almost 1,500 last year alone.

The evidence of ACS’s discriminatory use of emergency removals is overwhelming. The practice is used almost exclusively against Black and Latino families, who make up 90 percent of all emergency removals in New York City.