In 1984 a four-year-old Wisconsin boy, Joshua DeShaney, was beaten so severely by his father that the child became paralyzed and mentally retarded. For the previous two years there had been continual reports that Joshua was being abused; he was repeatedly hospitalized for serious injuries, and on one occasion a case worker observed bumps and lesions on the child. Yet the Winnebago County Department of Social Services had not removed Joshua from his divorced father's custody. The father was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to prison. In 1989 the case of Joshua DeShaney was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled a 6-3 decision that a state's failure to protect an individual from private violence does not constitute a violation of the victim's constitutional rights. Children's rights advocates were stunned by the decision. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun called the decision "a sad commentary on American life.....
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