ABSTRACT
In DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, 489 US 189 (1989), the US Supreme Court refused to hold a local governmental agency liable for violating an individual's right to due process when it failed to act to protect a son from his father's abuse. The US Supreme Court held in a six-three decision written by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist that nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment required a state to protect its citizens from a violation of their rights by a private individual. In dissent, Justices William J. Brennan Jr., Thur- good Marshall, and Harry A. Blackmun argued that inaction can be every bit as abusive as action, and that oppression can result when a state undertakes a vital duty and then ignores it. The case is symbolic for its clarification of positive and negative rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
