Camreta v. Greene
United States Supreme Court
563 U.S. 692 (2011)
Child protection caseworkers Camreta and Alford (defendants) interviewed a child, S.G., at school about sexual abuse allegations against her father, without a warrant or parental consent; S.G.'s mother, Sarah Greene (plaintiff), sued alleging the interview violated S.G.'s Fourth Amendment rights. The district court granted the caseworkers summary judgment on qualified immunity, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed that immunity while also separately ruling on the merits that the interview did violate the Fourth Amendment, intending that ruling to guide future conduct; although the caseworkers had won on immunity, the Supreme Court granted their petition to review the adverse constitutional ruling, by which time S.G. had moved states and was nearly 18.
Whether a government official who was granted qualified immunity, and thus prevailed on the final judgment, may still seek appellate review of an adverse ruling on the underlying constitutional claim in that same case.