Opinion ID: 62905
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Remaining in the Home

Text: The next issue before us is whether the individual defendants violated the Fourth Amendment after Gary returned home and ordered the defendants out of his house. [15] We again consider the doctrines of consent, exigent circumstances, and special needs in determining the constitutionality of the defendants' actions. The district court held that once consent is given to enter a house, it cannot be revoked. If that was the basis for the district court's holding, it erred, as it is clearly established that [a] consent which waives Fourth Amendment rights may be limited, qualified, or withdrawn. United States v. Ho, 94 F.3d 932, 936 n. 5 (5th Cir.1996); see also Mason v. Pulliam, 557 F.2d 426, 428-29 (5th Cir.1977). It makes no difference in our analysis that it was Gary who was revoking Menjivar's alleged consent. The Supreme Court recently held that when a physically present co-occupant of a home objects to a warrantless search, the search may not take place, even if another occupant has given consent. Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 106, 126 S.Ct. 1515, 164 L.Ed.2d 208 (2006). It is only a small step to conclude that a physically present co-occupant may revoke or withdraw the consent given by another occupant. Therefore, if the individual defendants' entry was based on Menjivar's consent and Gary revoked that consent upon his return home, the defendants violated the Gateses' Fourth Amendment rights by remaining in the house, absent a court order or exigent circumstances. As for exigent circumstances, the exigency remained the same as when the defendants first entered the house, with the exception of Gary's return. There is no evidence that the TDPRS employees learned new damaging information from the children in the few minutes that they had been present. Further, there is no evidence that Gary displayed any anger towards his children or gave any indication that he might abuse them in the immediate future. As noted by the Second Circuit in a due process context, [e]mergency circumstances mean circumstances in which the child is immediately threatened with harm .... [T]he mere possibility of danger is not enough. Tenenbaum, 193 F.3d at 594 (internal citation and quotation marks omitted). Here, there was no immediate threat that required the individual defendants to remain and continue the interviews in the absence of a court order. Therefore, the individual defendants cannot rely on exigent circumstances to justify their decision to remain in the home. Finally, for the reasons noted above, the special needs doctrine will not support the decision to remain in the home in the absence of a court order, consent, or exigent circumstances. Therefore, the Gateses have alleged that the individual defendants violated the Fourth Amendment when the defendants did not leave the Gateses' house upon the request of Gary. Moving to the second step in the qualified immunity analysis, however, we note that the law in this area, particularly with respect to the special needs doctrine, was not clearly established in 2000, as described in the previous section. If the law was not clearly established at the time of the alleged constitutional violation, the individual defendants are entitled to qualified immunity. See Aucoin, 306 F.3d at 272. Thus, although the Gateses' rights may have been violated, summary judgment on this issue was appropriate.