NE Foster Care Review Board can conduct warrantless visits

Nebraska Supreme Court agrees with a district court’s decision which allows the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board to conduct warrantless visits and observation of foster care facilities to ascertain whether they are meeting the needs of foster children. The Court sets out that to the extent constitutional rights may be implicated by home visits to foster care facilities, they agreed with the district court that the visits should be judged under a general standard of reasonableness which courts have applied when special governmental needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement, justify a departure from the requirements of individualized suspicion, warrants, and probable cause under traditional Fourth Amendment analysis.
Omni v. Nebraska Foster Care Review Bd., 277 Neb. 641 (2009)
Filed April 23, 2009. No. S-08-332.