Social Worker, Cop Must Face Suit After Mother Killed Twins

A social worker and police officer in California must face a civil rights suit for violating the due process rights of 10-month-old twins who were drowned by their psychotic mother after they were left in her care, a split Ninth Circuit panel said Tuesday.

The state-created danger exception to the general rule against failure-to-act liability in civil rights cases is applicable here, the opinion by Judge Carlos T. Bea said. But, in dissent, Judge Sandra S. Ikuta said that the majority improperly expanded the state-created danger doctrine into the realm of tort law in contravention of US Supreme Court and ...