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Longtime Home School Legal Defense Association members in Louisiana remember the Billiot case, in which a homeschool family objected to the invasion of their home by social workers. Despite our best efforts, the Louisiana courts ultimately ruled that Louisiana social workers do not need "probable cause" to enter a home on a child abuse investigation. That ruling has just been superseded by a 5th Circuit (the 5th Circuit covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) case, Roe v. Strickland, which holds that social workers do need probable cause before they may enter a private home. Since this 5th Circuit case interprets the guarantees of the United States Constitution (the supreme law of the land), the Billiot case is no longer binding on Louisiana families.

Roe began when a social worker invaded a home in Texas. The mother, not a homeschooler and not represented by an attorney, stood by silently while the social worker stripped her child and took extremely graphic pictures of the child's private parts "to prove that no abuse had occurred." After the social worker left, the mother filed suit.

The 5th Circuit ruling was bittersweet for this family. Although the court ruled that the 4th Amendment does protect families from this kind of invasion of privacy, the court also concluded that the law had been unclear at the time the social worker invaded the home. Social workers cannot be forced to pay civil rights damages unless the law was "clearly established" at the time the incident occurred. Thus, although this mother could have said "no" to the social worker's demand to enter her home, she did not have the right to collect damages after the social worker entered.

If a social worker tells you that you have been accused of abuse or neglect, please contact HSLDA immediately. We don't want any HSLDA member family to endure what Ms. Roe did in Texas.

— Scott W. Somerville