Town of Castle Rock, Colorado v. Gonzales, Individually and As Next Friend of Her Deceased Minor Children, Gonzales et al. (545 U.S. 748)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 27, 2005 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 545 U.S. 748 · 125 S. Ct. 2796
- Decided
- June 27, 2005
- Term
- October Term 2004
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. We decide in this case whether an individual who has obtained a state-law restraining order has a constitutionally protected property interest in having the police enforce the restraining order when they have probable' cause to believe it has been violated. I-H The horrible facts of this case are contained in the complaint that respondent Jessica Gonzales filed in Federal District Court. (Because the case comes to us on appeal from a dismissal of the complaint, we assume its allegations are true. See Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N. A., 534 U. S. 506, 508, n. 1 (2002).) Respondent alleges that petitioner, the town of Castle Rock, Colorado, violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution when its police officers, acting pursuant to official policy or custom, failed to respond properly to her repeated reports that her estranged husband was violating the terms of a restraining order. The restraining order had been issued by a state trial eourt several weeks earlier in conjunction with respondent’s divorce proceedings. The original form order, issued on May 21, 1999, and served on respondent’s husband on June 4,1999, commanded him not to “molest or disturb the peace of [respondent] or of any child,” and to remain at least 100 yards from the family home at all times. 366 F. 3d 1093, 1143…
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