Posts by Sheila Roberts

Read the brief. A 9-year-old girl with special needs was taken from class to be interview by a childwelfare investigator without a warrant, a judicial order, parental consent, emergencycircumstances, or even probable cause. The mother sued for a violation of her parental rights, but the defense argued that thechild wasn’t taken from the mother’s custody…

Read the Complaint In 2021 the Virginia legislature passed a bill amending the Virginia Civil Rights Act to make it illegal for parents to consider religion when hiring a babysitter. That’s a problem for devoutly religious parents who want to hire someone who shares their worldview and can help pass it on to the parents’…

Read the complaint. DC passed a law in 2019 to allow a medical provider to decide whether a child is matureenough to grant consent for vaccination without their parent’s approval. The law alsodirects the medical provider, the child’s school, and even their insurance provider tokeep this information away from the child’s parent. Such a scheme…

Read the brief. He was all she had left in the world. But a judge removed her from his care and gavecustody to her late mother’s fiancé. Could the court elevate the authority of thisunrelated male to equal the role of the girl’s own father in her life? We argued in an amicus brief that…

Read the brief. Child welfare investigations inflict harm on children. That’s the emphasis of our brief tothe United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Doe v. Woodard, a case inwhich a three-year-old girl was strip-searched by a welfare investigator at her preschoolwithout her parent’s knowledge or consent. The mother was not suspected…