The ACLU filed an amicus brief in support of Kathleen Rush, Eleanor Fraser and San Mateo County Daycare Association. Rush, in 1981, operated a licensed family day care home and an association of licensed family day care providers, sought an injunction against a California state statute that permitted warrantless inspections of home daycare facilities. Rush alleged that the statute was unconstitutional inasmuch as it violated the Fourth Amendment.

The court, in response, writes: "Because the state has a vital governmental interest in the protection of children which is furthered by warrantless inspections, and because family day care homes are pervasively regulated and all providers are required by statute to be alerted to this pervasive regulation, we hold that properly limited warrantless inspections of family day care homes do not offend the Fourth Amendment." However, they also find the current statutes overbroad, "allowing inspections which are unnecessary for the furtherance of state interests, and thus invalid under the Fourth Amendment as general searches." Thus, the original judgement of the district court was reversed in part, affirmed in part.