Albert Whitney Coburn v. Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families

Fraud on the Court I Due Process Whether the Due Process Clause permits a State to obtain dismissal of a civil action by relying on a false factual premise—specifically, the Attorney General’s assertion that a child-abuse allegation was investigated when the State’s own records, the Ombuds findings^ and the accuser’s own admissions show no investigation ever occurred and whether a court’s adoption of that false premise violates due process when it forecloses the parent’s ability to obtain any statutory remedy.

Ongoing Constitutional Injury to a Minor Child Whether Due Process allows a State to refuse to investigate a child-abuse allegation involving a still-minor child, while simultaneously allowing that uninvestigated allegation to be repeatedly used in court (most recently in 2022) to restrict parental rights, impose legal disabilities, and deny the child the statutory protections that an investigation is designed to provide.

Right of a Parent to Litigate on Behalf of a Minor Child Whether a state court may, without analysis or explanation, refuse to recognize a minor child as a party—despite the parent expressly filing claims on the child’s behalf—thereby preventing the child from asserting her own statutory rights and insulating the State from accountability for failing to investigate allegations of abuse.