Judges in Shawnee County are overzealous in their haste to remove children from a parent’s home and keep them in state custody, often declaring emergency situations where none exist, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
Federal law allows courts to immediately place children in the care of state protective services in cases where the children may suffer death or bodily harm. Examples of such emergencies are abandonment, torture, chronic abuse and one parent murdering another parent.
Because state law is ambiguous, most Kansas courts ...