The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that there is no “social worker exception” to compliance with constitutional limitations on an entry into a home without consent or exigent circumstances. Thus, constitutional protections apply. The Department of Human Services filed petitions to compel parents to permit the Department to conduct an in-home visit. The petitions were based solely on a report from an unidentified source that alleged that the mother was homeless and had failed to feed one of her children during a single eight-hour period. The trial court granted the petitions, finding that the Department had established probable cause. The mother appealed, claiming that the order violated her rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Superior Court affirmed, and the Supreme Court reversed. In assessing the order’s constitutionality, the Court analogized the petitions to compel to search warrants and proceeded to a self-described “four corners” analysis. Under that analysis, the Court found the single viable allegation against the parents did not establish probable cause.
