The Administration for Children’s Services has engaged in “pervasive discriminatory practices,” according to a lawsuit filed by Chanetto Rivers in federal court last week.

Rivers, who is black, claims that the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) removed her newborn baby from her custody as part of the agency’s “disparate treatment of Black families” which “cause[s] lasting, intergenerational trauma.”

Whether or not ACS is racist, Chanetto Rivers is not a good test case. 

The facts are clear: A few hours before Rivers gave birth in 2021, she smoked marijuana.

When her child was born, both she and the baby tested positive for the drug.

With marijuana now (and then) legal in New York State, such findings are no longer reason enough to separate children from their parents.

Nonetheless, ACS told the hospital not to release the baby to Rivers. 

The actual positive test was hardly the only factor.

Rivers had two other children previously removed from her custody because of incidents involving drugs and alcohol and because she failed to obtain medical care for one of them. (ACS also claims she was smoking weed in the hospital right after the birth, though this has not been substantiated.)

Because ACS cannot discuss Rivers’ cases, the…