Minnesota Law Review

The Child Protection Pretense: States’ Continued Consignment of Newborn Babies to Unfit Parents

Major federal legislation since the mid-90s has embodied a philosophical shift away from trying to salvage grossly unfit parents and toward ensuring children good families before they incur permanently damaging abuse, neglect, or foster care drift. That legislation has created a widespread perception that the state is now more proactive in preventing child maltreatment. This Article explains why that perception is false and what further reforms are needed to give children the protection they deserve from unfit parents, beginning at birth. This Article integrates moral and political theory, extensive social science research, and a canvassing of state and federal child protection law in order to mount a compelling and novel indictment of the current child protection system and to advance bold proposals for making child protection a reality rather than a pretense.

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  • 2011 Symposium Webstreaming

    Live webstreaming for the 2011 Minnesota Law Review Symposium, Citizens United: Democracy Realized—or Defeated?, will be available at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/minnesota-law-review-symposium-citizens-united-democracy-realized–or-defeated. Be sure to check it out!

  • Article Submission Policy Announcement

    On April 19, 2011, the Minnesota Law Review and several peer journals released a joint letter committing to give every author at least seven days to decide whether to accept any offer of publication. Eliminating “exploding offers” will improve the quality of our deliberations and the scholarship that we publish, [...]

  • Congratulations!

    Class of 2011 Excellence in Public Service Award recipient:  Steve Schmidt (vol. 95 Note & Comment Editor); and Class of 2011 Most Outstanding Contribution Award recipient:  Chelsea Brennan (vol. 95 Lead Managing Editor). Congratulations Steve and Chelsea!

  • 2011 Minnesota Law Review Symposium

    Citizens United: Democracy Realized—or Defeated?

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