PENNSYLVANIA CASE

Careful balance: Even those accused of child abuse have rights

When Pennsylvanians become parents, do they lose some of their constitutional protection against unreasonable searches? That's the question at the heart of a recent state Superior Court ruling, which tackled the tricky issue that arises when accused child abusers refuse to let caseworkers search their home.
In a court case from Susquehanna County that drew the attention of child advocates, a mother and father accused of child abuse refused to let a child welfare caseworker enter their home. With no evidence beyond the lone allegation, the county child welfare agency was able to obtain a court order allowing workers to search the home despite the parents' objections. After the search, the allegation was determined to be unfounded.

The family sued, saying that the United States and Pennsylvania constitutions protected them against unreasonable searches. In a decision that pitted the protection of vulnerable children against the right to security in one's own home, the three-judge panel sided with the parents. The ruling, written by Judge Kate Ford Elliott, noted that the county's responsibilities “to investigate each and every allegation of child abuse/neglect, including visiting the child's home at least once during its investigation, do not trump an individual's constitutional rights.”
The court's decision may leave some cases of child abuse harder to fathom for investigators, but its ruling was the correct one. Basic constitutional rights are designed to protect people — be they flag burners or atheists — when public sentiment will not. Now in Pennsylvania the same constitutional rights extend to those accused of child abuse.
Ultimately, only about 20 percent of child abuse accusations in Pennsylvania are substantiated, according to the Department of Public Welfare, meaning many homes could be searched on the basis of spurious, and often vindictive, allegations. Far from banning searches when accused adults are unwilling, the ruling simply demands that probable cause exist before a court arms investigators with a search warrant.

Respecting the constitutional rights of adults when the welfare of children hangs in the balance is no simple matter, but Pennsylvania's Superior Court judges did a fair job of balancing both interests.

Editorial
1 June 2005

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05152/513453.stm

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