Judge Harry Barnes squatting on injunctive relief motion in mass seizure of Arkansas children

Lost to their parents permanently in 3 weeks, if Judge Barnes doesn't act?

Note: This is part two of a three part article about the lawsuit filed by Attorney Phillip Kuhn on behalf of Tony Alamo Ministries, Albert Ralph Krantz and Gregory Scott Seago against the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Arkansas DHS seized the children of Krantz, Seago and other members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, simply because of their association with Tony Alamo, not because they had committed any crimes. The lawsuit was filed in federal court and asks for the federal court to intervene and grant injunctive relief concerning all of the state proceedings against Krantz, Seago and the other parents whose children were taken by the state.

The State of Arkansas DHS has moved to have the lawsuit filed by Phillip Kuhn dismissed. In the first part of this article, I discussed the Younger Doctrine, which normally forbids a federal court from interfering in state proceedings, and I discussed the three exceptions to the Younger Doctrine.

In his response to the state's petition for a summary judgment (i.e. dismissal of the lawsuit), Attorney Kuhn argues persuasively that the federal court has the right to intervene in this case because the State of Arkansas has violated the First Amendment rights of the plaintiffs by requiring them to leave the church property and obtain secular employment in order to regain custody of their children.

Kuhn also argues that the State of Arkansas has violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution by holding the plaintiffs children hostage until they leave the church. According to Kuhn the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that "parents have a constitutionally protected liberty interest in the care, custody and management of their children" and this interest is "perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests."

When the state creates a remedy to protect children, it is supposed to use "the least intrusive means possible." Kuhn argues that the Arkansas DHS failed to do that and has intruded unduly upon his clients' rights of choice and privacy.

Kuhn references two recent cases where the federal courts have "considered the issue of the mass removal of children from a religious organization by a State foster care, welfare organization." In both cases the Federal court did assume jurisdiction and issued injunctions prohibiting "such practices even though the Federal decision interfered with State proceedings."

The two cases are Heartland Academy Community Church v. Waddle and Word of Faith Fellowship, Inc. v. Rutherford County Department of Social Services.

The attorneys for Word of Faith Fellowship, Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman, P.C., summarized the case against Rutherford County, North Carolina Department of Social Services this way:

"The Department threatened to remove the children of all church members on the basis that the Church's religious preaching constituted child abuse.  The Firm argued that the County's efforts were part of an effort to force the Church to leave the community and violated the religious rights of the Church and its members.  After the federal court upheld the legal basis of the claims, the County agreed to cease its efforts and to pay the Church's attorneys fees."

In the Heartland Academy Community Church case, 115 children were removed from the school run by the church. In the decision by United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth District, ruling against Missouri Judicial Officer Michael Waddle, the court described the illegal removal this way:

"...on October 30, 2001, based upon continuing allegations of child mistreatment and abuse at Heartland facilities, juvenile authorities and uniformed, armed law enforcement officers removed from HCA 115 children, virtually all of the boarding students who attended the school, loading them onto school busses and taking them into protective custody. The removal was without notice to Heartland, the students, or their parents. Authorities had ex parte probable-cause state-court orders to remove only about seventy-five of the students who were taken into custody, as well as orders for approximately forty children who no longer lived at Heartland and for four others who were over the age of eighteen, that is, adults over whom juvenile authorities had no jurisdiction. Waddle had sought the orders using a list of boarding students that he had obtained in July 2001, which evidently was inaccurate by October when he decided that all of the children living at Heartland needed to be removed immediately."

Just as the children from the Tony Alamo Ministries Church didn't want to leave their parents, the children at Heartland Christian Academy did not want to be taken into custody by the state. The court described the experience in its decision:

"The removal took over two hours, with Waddle himself noting, "The juveniles showed their emotion about leaving Heartland school in these circumstances by weeping, hugging teachers, praying, silence, singing songs, seeming non-plussed or shouting at juvenile office staff.""

The court's decision also states that the students were kept in custody for several days. When the parents were finally allowed to retrieve them, they were given a letter threatening them with permanent loss of custody of their children, if they let them return to the school.

Sound familiar?

The children were removed on October 30, 2001. On November 5, 2001, Heartland filed for injunctive relief and a temporary restraining order against the county and state in District Court. They were granted temporary relief on November 6, one day later (emphasis added). This is in complete contrast to Judge Harry Barnes in Arkansas, who has been sitting on Kuhn's lawsuit for months.

The district court held more extensive hearings on November 14-16 on Heartland's motion and in February 2002 issued a permanent injunction which stated:

"Until a full trial on the merits is held in the above-styled action, Defendants Michael Waddle, David Parrish, and Patricia McAfee, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys and those persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of this Order are enjoined from seeking or participating in any pre-hearing removal of all boarding children from HCA unless all boarding children at HCA are directly involved in the underlying facts that serve as the basis for such removal."

The Heartland case is not only instructive about the mass removal of children from religious organizations, it is instructive about the need for swift justice. Delayed justice is injustice, and it appears that Federal judge, Harry Barnes, is going to sit on Kuhn's lawsuit until the clock runs out and it becomes moot.

Barnes should have ruled on the motion by now. Plaintiff Albert Krantz has a permanency hearing regarding his children in three weeks time. Without injunctive relief, Krantz and his wife may have their parental rights terminated and permanently lose custody of their six children, in spite of the fact that neither parent has committed a crime and in spite of the fact that neither parent has received proper due process.

If you would like to send Judge Barnes a respectful, intelligent letter, politely asking him to rule promptly on this case, you can contact him at:

Honorable Harry F. Barnes
Senior U.S. District Judge
219 U.S. Post Office & Courthouse
101 South Jackson Avenue
El Dorado, Arkansas 71730-6133
Phone: (870) 862-1303

Note: Due to the serious nature of this case and the upcoming permanency hearing concerning the Krantz children, permission is granted to reprint this article in full on any website or blog, as long as a link to this page is provided. Please email a link to this article to as many people as possible.

 For more info: Read more articles by Dan Weaver on the seizure of children from parents who are members of the Tony Alamo Ministries Church.