Brown Publishes Article on Removing Children from Abusive Parents

January 12, 2005

Professor Mark Brown has published Rescuing Children from Abusive Parents: The Constitutional Value of Pre-Deprivation Process, 65 OHIO ST. L.J. 913 (2004).

The article addresses the history, constitutionality and wisdom of rescuing children from their homes without prior judicial authorization. It argues that Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment limitations, which generally require some sort of prior judicial process, apply to child abuse investigations. The removal of children from their homes prior to judicial process should be excused only when time and circumstance preclude officials from seeking a warrant or court order.

“The idea came from prosecuting the Doe v. Kearney case,” said Brown. Doe v. Kearney, 329 F.3d 1286 (11th Cir. 2003), questioned the constitutionality of Florida’s procedures for taking children from their homes. “The article is relevant in Ohio as well, since the trend here as elsewhere is to rescue kids without warrants.”

In addition to serving as Capital’s Newton D. Baker/Baker & Hostetler Professor of Law, Brown has litigated civil rights cases for several organizations, including the ACLU, NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and National People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. Professor Brown came to the Capital University Law School from the Stetson University College of Law in Florida, where he was a tenured faculty member teaching courses in Constitutional Law and Constitutional Litigation. He also has taught at the University of Illinois College of Law and the Ohio State University College of Law. For the 1993 October Term, Professor Brown served as a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States.