On Wednesday, November 16th, a northern Minnesota mother filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal district court. She is asking the court to restore her 14th amendment constitutional due process rights which she claims were violated when her parental rights were suddenly and arbitrarily removed. [See press release.] In June, 2015, without her knowledge, consent, or involvement, Anmarie Calgaro’s fifteen-year-old son obtained a “Notice of Emancipation” from Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, a nonprofit agency that provides free legal services to low income people. Using this document alone, state agencies and private services shut Anmarie out of every important physical, emotional, and educational decision her minor son was making. Suddenly and without notice, she no longer had access to his school or health records. Without her consent, the state issued him a state driver’s license and county health services approved housing and other county services. A private health service began prescribing dangerous hormonal drugs to ‘transition’ him from male to female. This health service never consulted her, even though these controversial and largely untested drugs cause potentially irreversible effects and have unknown long-term risks. He was even prescribed narcotics from another health service. Clearly, Anmarie’s God-given and constitutionally protected parental rights have been violated. And her responsibilities to care for her son’s physical and emotional health and safety have been blocked by the actions of these agencies and services. She has been denied the chance to plead her case in court. Anmarie, her family, and her son have been grievously harmed by this unconstitutional collusion of groups that exclude her from the on-going medical, physical, and emotional care and education of her own child. Outside agencies cannot fully understand the physical background, personal struggles, insecurities, strengths, weaknesses, fears and dreams of her child without talking to her. Nor can a struggling child of sixteen be considered capable of making fully informed and life changing decisions like this. For his safety and for his welfare, Anmarie wants and needs to be involved. The Minnesota Child Protection League (MN CPL) is supporting Anmarie’s legal challenge because her rights and the welfare of her son have been outrageously trampled upon. MN CPL is also supporting her legal challenge because this is happening to other families around the country. [See MN CPL statement.] Attorney Erick Kaardal filed the complaint on Anmarie’s behalf with the support of the Thomas More Society of Chicago, a national nonprofit public interest law firm. Anmarie is asking the courts to declare that her due process rights under the 14th amendment of the Constitution have been violated, and to restore her full parental rights. She wants to help her son. She also wants to help other families in similar circumstances who have been deprived of their parental rights to help their own children. [See Anmarie’s statement.] The Minnesota Child Protection League (MN CPL) exists to protect children from exploitation, indoctrination and violence. For more information regarding this case, please go to MN Child Protection League.