In re D.R.

Juvenile Law Center joined National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and other advocates on an amicus brief filed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. We argued that the proposed judicial expansion of the Child Protective Services Law to permit unreasonable searches of parents through compulsory urine drug screens during civil child welfare investigations violates both the Fourth Amendment and the Pennsylvania Constitution. We further argued that such an expansion would have a disparate impact on poorer people and people of color.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that “[b]ased on the unambiguous provisions” of the Child Protective Services Law, a Children and Youth Agency’s authority to investigate does not include the authority to obtain an involuntary urine sample from the subject of an investigation.