CA6: Ptf consented to inspections as a condition of licensing her group child care home

Plaintiff ran a group child care home, and twice before state officials came to inspect to see if she had violated the terms of her license. To get licensed in Michigan, one consents to administrative searches: “In order to permit proper determination of conformity with the rules, I give permission to the Michigan Department of Human Services to make a necessary and reasonable investigation of activities and standards of care, and to make an onsite inspection of my facility and services.” During the inspection at issue, they found a locked door and children hiding behind it. Plaintiff’s complaint referenced her contract, and the contract mentioned searches as a condition of licensing. In context, the consent covered the whole home, and it was valid. Even if not, the DHS officials get qualified immunity for forcing their way into the locked room. Hall v. Sweet, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 22428 (6th Cir. Dec. 16, 2016):

Finally, it cannot be said that the consent provision was invalid simply because agreeing to its terms may have been a condition of receiving the child care operating license. We recognize that “conditions can lawfully be imposed on the receipt of a benefit—conditions that may include the surrender of a constitutional right, such as the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures—provided the conditions are reasonable.” Burgess v. Lowery, 201 F.3d 942, 947 (7th Cir. 2000) (collecting cases); see also Knox Cty. Educ. Ass’n v. Knox Cty. Bd. of Educ., 158 F.3d 361, 366-67, 384 (6th Cir. 1998) (finding no constitutional violation for requirement that school employees agree to suspicionless urinalysis as a condition of job offer). Here, Ms. Hall was operating a child care business out of a home under a license that, upon renewal, asked her to agree to inspections intended to ensure her home complied with child safety requirements.

If this consent provision is read as a condition of the license, it is a reasonable one. For one thing, the state has an overwhelming justification in ensuring child wellbeing is adequately protected at the locations it licenses for child care. For another, homeowners voluntarily operating a child care business out of their home—knowingly subjecting that home to related regulatory oversight—have a reduced expectation of privacy there. Under these circumstances, and weighing the state’s interest in protecting child safety against the privacy interest of child care licensees, it is reasonable for these licenses to be conditioned on consent to investigations of the houses where the child care homes are operated. Cf. Knox Cty. Educ. Ass’n, 158 F.3d at 379, 384 (drug testing of school employees was reasonable given the public’s “very strong” interest in ensuring child safety through testing and because the employees’ privacy interest was “significantly diminished by the level of regulation of their jobs and by the nature of the work itself”). Conditioning a group child care home license on consent to search that home is distinguishable from unreasonably conditioning a license on consent to search areas unrelated to that license and with no similarly compelling childcare interests at stake. See, e.g., Anobile v. Pelligrino, 303 F3d 107, 121, 124-25 (2d. Cir. 2001) (state horse racing license was impermissibly conditioned on consent to search dormitories). In sum, the condition here, that the group child care home license would issue only if the state could inspect the home for regulatory compliance, was a reasonable one. The consent to search was therefore effective.

Accordingly, the court finds defendants’ conduct was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment because Ms. Hall had consented to the searches and plaintiffs did not withdraw or otherwise limit that consent.