U.S. Supreme Court Sidesteps Critical Parents’ Rights Case, Does Away with Fourth Amendment Protections for Public School Students
WASHINGTON, DC—In a devastating ruling that does away with what little Fourth Amendment protections remain to public school students and their families, the U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out a lower court ruling in Alford, et al. v. Greene which required authorities to secure a warrant, a court order or parental consent before interrogating students at school. In reviewing the case, the Supreme Court was asked to determine whether a state human services caseworker and armed deputy sheriff in Oregon violated the rights of a 9-year-old girl when, without a court order or parental consent, they removed her from her elementary school classroom and questioned her for two hours about allegations of parental abuse. Pointing to the fact that the girl involved is nearing her 18th birthday and no longer lives in Oregon, the Court not only declared the case moot but vacated the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that the girls' Fourth Amendment rights against an "unreasonable search and seizure" were violated. The Rutherford Institute had filed a friend of the court brief in the case urging the Court to affirm the lower court's ruling and reject the idea that individual rights are forfeited when parents send their children to public schools, essentially rendering them wards of the state.
The Rutherford Institute's amicus brief in Alford, et al. v. Greene is available at here.
"It's disturbing when the highest court in America will not affirmatively decide that children have
