Opinion ID: 541785
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the does' equal protection claim

Text: 19 As we observed earlier, the district court ruled that section 48.981 does not mandate a county investigation of reports made by persons other than those required by subsection 2 to report suspected child abuse. The Does contend that this interpretation of section 48.981, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court appears to have accepted in State v. Williquette, 129 Wis.2d 239, 385 N.W.2d 145 (1986), violates their rights to equal protection under the law because it results in the irrational differential treatment of reports filed by members of the general public. We disagree. 20 It is obvious why Wisconsin might want to make a distinction between the way in which counties handle required reports and the way they treat authorized reports. The persons listed in subsection 2 of the statute are those who see children in the course of their professional duties. Presumably, the Wisconsin legislature believes that these persons possess specialized training or experience that enables them to spot the often subtle signs of child abuse. Moreover, persons who see children in the course of their professional duties are likely to be disinterested in custody matters. The state legislature must also take into consideration the costs of requiring investigations, in terms both of budgetary constraints and of intrusions into the personal lives of the state's residents. The state could rationally choose to allocate more resources to reports made by skilled and experienced professionals than to those made by members of the population at large. Further, the state could reasonably conclude that reports by skilled professionals would in general be more reliable and would therefore result in fewer unnecessary intrusions into families' personal lives. The district court's interpretation of section 48.981 does not violate the equal protection clause. 11 The Wisconsin legislature or judiciary could, of course, adopt the Does' view that section 48.981 requires investigation of all child abuse reports, but such a decision would be purely a matter of state law and policy; neither interpretation of the statute would implicate the federal Constitution. 21 The judgment of the district court is, therefore, 22 AFFIRMED.