This case concerns a raid on Ward 93 of San Francisco General Hospital by the San Mateo and San Francisco Police Departments early in 1979. SF General operates, in conjunction with the University of California, a Levo Alpha Acetyl Methodol (L.A.A.M.), or "methadone" research program, which maintains strict confidentiality of participants, so as to encourage participation in the program - hence the plaintiff name of "Doe." At the time of the raid, the program had 35 participants, all of whom believed that their participation in the program was, and would remain, confidential. Defendant J.L. Coppock is the Chief of Police of the City of San Mateo, and is responsible for the conduct of his police force.

The raid was preceded by a phone call to Ward 39 by a member of the Police who wished to investigate recent murders in the city of San Mateo, and requested confidential information about white male L.A.A.M. participants. An employee of the Hospital informed the officer that that information was confidential. The police then obtained a search warrant for this information and, without the participation of the Hospital or any advance notice, proceeded to collect information about the patients in the methadone program. Over the course of this action, they also placed Dr. David Deitch, the Chief of Substance Abuse Service of SF General, in detention for asking that they wait for a hospital administrator to authorize the search. The plaintiffs allege that several members of the police force had knowledge of "federal statutes and regulations protecting the confidentiality of patient records in federally assisted drug abuse programs.

The ACLU argued that the seizure of this information could have a "chilling effect" on future methadone program participation. The court, in their judgement, agreed that the privacy and confidentiality of medical patients is of paramount importance, and requested that all information seized be returned to the Hospital. In the interest of the social benefit that these drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs offer, the court requested that the Police disseminate information about search warrants related to drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation to their staff to ensure that such a raid would not happen again in the future.