More than half the time New York City's Administration for Children's Services takes a child, it uses "emergency removal" authority, the power to separate families without a court order. That's not an exception. That's the process. And 90% of those emergency removals happen to Black and Latino families, according to an April 2026 study. White families: 3% [1].
Two families filed a class-action lawsuit against the city on Thursday, claiming ACS abuses that emergency power to take children from Black and Brown families when there's time to get a judge involved [1].
What emergency removal means
Emergency removal is the legal authority to take a child from a parent without judicial review first. It's supposed to be reserved for situations where there's imminent danger and no time to go to court [1].
The April 2026 study found ACS uses that authority in more than 50% of all removals [1]. If you're using emergency power more often than not, the lawsuit argues, it stops being an emergency. It becomes standard operating procedure.
The racial breakdown makes the pattern sharper. Black and Latino families account for 90% of all emergency removals in New York City. White families make up about 3% [1].
What the court already said
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled it's unconstitutional for ACS to separate children from parents if there's time to obtain judicial review [1]. The same court held that caseworkers are personally liable for illegal family separations [1].
That ruling changes the stakes. This isn't just about agency policy. It's about individual workers who could be on the hook if a separation is found to be illegal.
The lawsuit filed Thursday pushes that logic further. If the Second Circuit says you can't skip judicial review when there's time for it, and ACS is using emergency removal in more than half its cases, the lawsuit is asking: how many of those removals had time for a judge?
Who filed
The lawsuit was filed by a coalition including the Family Justice Law Center, NYU Family Defense Clinic, CUNY School of Law Family Defense Clinic, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP [1].
The two families named in the suit allege ACS took their children without court orders in situations that didn't qualify as genuine emergencies [1].
The lawsuit seeks class-action status, which would cover other families who've had children removed under similar circumstances.
The city has not yet responded to the lawsuit. ACS did not provide comment.
The question the lawsuit puts to the city: if you're using emergency power in more than half your removals, and nine out of ten families are Black or Brown, what exactly is the emergency?
