Because the media trade in constant cases that were so bad that CPS could do nothing to prevent them?
And why aren't the perpetrators facing jury trials and getting huge monetary judgments against them, that will ruin THEIR lives?
Statutory immunity.
Seems to me that would be a more productive avenue than campaigning for the abolition or severe hand-tying of all government child protection agencies.
That Constitution thingy really bothers you, doesn't it? I suggest you move to Sweden.
The two chief perpetrators in this story apparently weren't charged with anything at all -- Mewborn ran off to Louisiana a free man (hopefully he's one of the 1000 who didn't survive Katrina), and the CPS supervisor is still on the taxpayers' payroll, now with access to vulnerable elderly people.
Agencies with power protect themselves. That's how it's always been.
But he, and the citizens, need to make clear that there WERE real child abusers in this case, and THEY need to be charged, tried, convicted, and sent to rot in prison. Until we make a scary example of some of these people, it'll keep happening frequently.
Ahem... IT DOES HAPPEN FREQUENTLY. What is rare is when someone within CPS breaks ranks so that a lawsuit even has a prayer.
Statutory immunity has limits, e.g. does not protect employees from criminal or civil prosecution for acts that were illegally prohibited by the agencies they work for. Just ask all the police officers across the country who are having their wages garnished for the rest of their lives, due to someome having won a "racial discrimination" suit against them -- and many of those cases had very dubious grounds, and in quite a few nobody was remotely injured (i.e. some black guy sues because he was stopped and ticketed for speeding, and convinces a jury that the officer was singling out black drivers to stop and ticket for violations).
The "Rev" Mewborn was not a state employee, and had no statutory immunity.
And statutes are promulgated, amended, and repealed by legislators, who are elected by citizens.
The Constitution leaves the details of how to deal with crime, to the States, where citizens are supposed to use the ballot box to ensure that abuses of police powers are not tolerated. The specifics of many of these cases include clear violations of Constitutional rights. However, the existence of CPS agencies with powers sufficient to enable them to intervene when there is good reason to believe that a child citizens's basic rights are being seriously violated, is not in conflict with the Constitution.