“No Social Worker Exception”
The knock at the door:
Cleveland County, North Carolina Department of Social Services received an anonymous report of an unsupervised two year-old naked child in the driveway of a house. When a DSS/CPS caseworker went to investigate, the parents refused to allow her to privately interview the child or enter the home.
N.C. District Court:
Cleveland County DSS then filed a petition under G.S. # 7B-303 alleging that the parents were obstructing/interfering with the CPS investigation. The trial judge, erroneously decided the parents had interfered with the investigation and ordered them not to obstruct/interfere with the CPS investigation.
N.C. Court of Appeals:
The parents, arguing their right under the Fourth Amendment to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, appealed the trial court's order to the N.C. Court of Appeals, which, in a divided decision, erroneously upheld the order of the trial court.
N.C. Supreme Court:
The parents appealed that decision to the N.C. Supreme Court, again arguing the Fourth Amendment. The N.C. Supreme Court found for the parents and stated pursuant to N.C. G.S. 7B-302(h): DSS/CPS may not enter a private residence for investigation purposes without at least one of the following: (1) The reasonable belief that a juvenile is in imminent danger of death or serious physical injury. (2) The permission of the parent or person responsible for the juvenile’s care. (3) The accompaniment of a law enforcement officer who has legal authority to enter the residence. (4) A court order.
Federal Court:
During the ratification debates for the U.S. Constitution, the People demanded amendments (the Bill of Rights) that would shield their fundamental rights from the federal government. This included the protection of home privacy. For that reason, James Madison drafted the Fourth Amendment, which reads:
"The Right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
After the Civil War, basic rights (to include the right of home privacy) were etended to limit state and local governments, in addition to federal officials.The Supreme Court has vigorously enforced the Fourth Amendment, even to the point of excluding at criminal trials any evidence illegally seized by police without a warrant. And Congress gave extra teeth to the Bill of Rights by authorizing citizens, under 42 United States Code Section 1983, to sue government officials for money damages when they violate the Fourth Amendment and other basic rights. There is no social worker exception to the strictures of the Fourth Amendment.” Federal Courts have almost unanimously found that the Fourth Amendment applies to officials from DSS/CPS.
Civil Liability of DSS/CPS:
In December 2012, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals noted the wide agreement among federal courts on this issue. The court ruled in a case where social workers entered a family’s home without a warrant to inspect the premises and interview the children, after receiving two complaints. In the end, the allegations were totally unfounded and the case was closed. But that was not the end of the story. The family sued the social workers under Section 1983 for violating their Fourth Amendment rights. The court found merit in their complaint and explained that the Fourth Amendment must apply to social workers in order to protect individual Americans’ privacy rights.
