Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/04pdf/04-278.pdf
Page Number: 6

Cite as:  545 U. S. ____ (2005) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

“YOU  SHALL  USE  EVERY  REASONABLE  MEANS 
TO  ENFORCE  THIS  RESTRAINING  ORDER.    YOU 
SHALL  ARREST,  OR,  IF  AN  ARREST  WOULD  BE 
IMPRACTICAL  UNDER  THE  CIRCUMSTANCES, 
SEEK  A  WARRANT  FOR  THE  ARREST  OF  THE 
RESTRAINED  PERSON  WHEN  YOU  HAVE 
INFORMATION  AMOUNTING  TO  PROBABLE 
CAUSE  THAT  THE  RESTRAINED  PERSON  HAS 
VIOLATED  OR  ATTEMPTED  TO  VIOLATE  ANY 
PROVISION  OF  THIS  ORDER  AND  THE 
RESTRAINED  PERSON  HAS  BEEN  PROPERLY 
SERVED  WITH A  COPY  OF  THIS  ORDER  OR  HAS 
RECEIVED ACTUAL NOTICE OF THE EXISTENCE 
OF THIS ORDER.”  Ibid. 

On June 4, 1999, the state trial court modified the terms 
of  the  restraining  order  and  made  it  permanent.    The 
modified  order  gave  respondent’s  husband  the  right  to 
spend time with his three daughters (ages 10, 9, and 7) on
alternate  weekends,  for  two  weeks  during  the  summer, 
and,  “ ‘upon  reasonable  notice,’ ”  for  a  mid-week  dinner 
visit  “ ‘arranged  by  the  parties’ ”;  the  modified  order  also 
allowed  him  to  visit  the  home  to  collect  the  children  for 
such “parenting time.”  Id., at 1097 (majority opinion). 

According  to  the  complaint,  at  about  5  or  5:30  p.m.  on
Tuesday,  June  22,  1999,  respondent’s  husband  took  the 
three daughters while they were playing outside the fam-
ily  home.  No  advance  arrangements  had  been  made  for 
him to see the daughters that evening.  When respondent 
noticed  the  children  were  missing,  she  suspected  her
husband  had  taken  them.    At  about  7:30  p.m.,  she  called 
the Castle Rock Police Department, which dispatched two 
officers.  The  complaint  continues:  “When  [the  officers] 
arrived  . . . ,  she  showed  them  a  copy  of  the  TRO  and 
requested  that  it  be  enforced  and  the  three  children  be 
returned  to  her  immediately.    [The  officers]  stated  that