United States Fifth Circuit

Summary judgment for various governmental entities and employees accused of performing unconstitutional child abuse investigations is affirmed where: 1) certain Fourth Amendment claims resulting from the seizures of plaintiffs' children failed because the exigent-circumstances doctrine applied; 2) where there were Fourth Amendment violations, individual defendants were entitled to qualified immunity; 3) a Fourteenth Amendment due-process claim failed under the same analysis as the Fourth Amendment claims; 4) section 1983 claims against individual supervisors failed for either lack of evidence or qualified immunity; 5) section 1983 claims against government entities failed for lack of evidence of a policy or custom of constitutional violations; 6) claims under the Texas Constitution were subject to the same analysis as the federal claims; and 7) there was no abuse of discretion in the denial of requests for declaratory relief or a permanent injunction. (Republished opinion)

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/28/2008
• Published 08/01/2008

Judges

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel