NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments Tuesday on a divisive case dealing with tactics used by investigators to question children who may have been the victim of sexual abuse.
The case dates to 2003, when a child protection investigator and a deputy sheriff removed a 9-year-old Oregon girl from her classroom and questioned her at length as to whether her father had sexually abused her.
The central question is whether the men violated the Fourth Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable search and seizure” when they questioned girl in that manner without a warrant, without her mother’s consent, and in the absence of emergency circumstances.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the girl’s rights were violated. The state of Oregon appealed to the Supreme Court.
