Amicus Brief Successful in New Jersey Supreme Court

upEND Movement, MJCF Coalition, and Mothers Outreach Network signed onto an amicus brief to appeal the decisions in the State v. Nieves and State v. Cifelli, and the appeal was upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court. Their decision means that symptoms commonly associated with “shaken baby syndrome” cannot be used as evidence of abuse on a theory of shaking alone without some other impact to a child’s head.

In the State v. Nieves and State v. Cifelli, the young children exhibited symptoms of subdural hematoma, retinal hemorrhages, and encephalopathy. In both cases, the same doctor determined that the children were victims of child abuse, specifically Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma (SBS/AHT).

Because the children were in the care of their fathers when they began to exhibit the symptoms, both men were charged with criminal offenses.

These cases highlight the intersections of family policing, the criminal legal system, and the inherent violence of mandated reporting. Because doctors are encouraged and required to report families for suspected abuse, it creates distrust between communities and medical professionals and may dissuade parents from seeking critical emergency care for their children.

And of course, this surveillance is racialized, disproportionally targeting Black and Indigenous families. Research shows that injuries in Black children are nine times more likely than those in white children to be reported as abuse despite evidence that child abuse and neglect occur at equal rates across races.

We are encouraged by the court’s decision to omit the doctor’s assumptions of abuse based on symptoms alone, but so much work is still needed to untangle our healthcare from the carceral web that makes situations like this possible. Additionally, true reparations are needed for communities to heal from state violence that separates, surveils, and punishes them.

We look to organizers like Joyce McMillan, founder of JMAC for Families, who coined the term “mandated supporting”, a framework centering families through “equitable, harm reductionist, and anti-racist practices, while divesting from systems of surveillance and punishment.” Similarly, at upEND Movement, we are exploring non-carceral community responses when kids experience harm and families need support.

It will take varied responses across local, state, and national levels to reduce the reach of the family policing system and build a safer future for families. We’re thankful for all of the organizers in this movement for chipping away at the system, one case, one march, one project at a time.