The case of a Botetourt County couple who woke to find a sheriff's deputy and another man in their home pulling the covers off their daughter may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In June, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Sgt. J.A. Wood of the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office had a right to enter the home of Mark and Cheryl Hunsberger without a warrant. The decision overturned a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson, who had denied Wood's motion to dismiss a $10 million lawsuit brought against him by the Hunsbergers. The Hunsbergers then asked the entire 4th Circuit to consider the case.

Last week in a 5-4 split, the court declined, again siding with Wood.

The dissenting appellate judges issued an unusual and strongly worded statement calling the majority opinion an "affront to the Constitution" and its Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches. The judges expressed hope that "another court" would see the case differently.

The other court, of course, is the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Roanoke attorneys Terry Grimes and Melvin Williams, who are representing the Hunsbergers, said they will file an appeal there.

Grimes wrote in an e-mail that he hopes the Supreme Court will overturn an opinion that "takes our society away from Constitutional safeguards and one step closer to the brink of lawlessness."

The Hunsbergers' lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke and on hold there pending the appeals, stems from a neighbor's February 2007 call to the sheriff's office about suspicious activity.

The Hunsbergers and their 10-year-old daughter were asleep. Their two sons and other teens were drinking beer downstairs, apparently without the adults' knowledge.

When no one answered Wood's knocks, he began calling owners of cars parked on the street.

One of those was William Blessard, who thought his 16-year-old daughter, who had taken the car for the night, was staying elsewhere.

Blessard came to the Hunsbergers' home. Then he and Wood entered and searched it, tugging covers off the Hunsbergers' daughter and shining a flashlight in her face.

Last year, Wilson ruled that the situation was not the sort of emergency that would let police enter without a warrant. Wood appealed Wilson's ruling to the 4th Circuit.

The attempt to take the Hunsbergers' case to the Supreme Court is something of a rematch for Grimes and Williams and Wood's attorney, Elizabeth Dillon of Salem. In 2007, Grimes and Williams sought to involve the Supreme Court in former Roanoke sheriff's deputy Lespia King's sexual harassment lawsuit against former Sheriff George McMillan.

Grimes and Williams, representing King, hoped to overturn lower court rulings that barred other women from joining the lawsuit. Dillon represented McMillan.

Both sides filed briefs, and the Supreme Court declined to take the appeal.

In 2008, a jury in U.S. District Court decided the overall case in King's favor. It is still being appealed.

On Tuesday, Dillon said that given the language of the dissent in the Hunsberger case, she was not surprised that Grimes and Williams are appealing to the Supreme Court.

But strong dissent aside, the 4th Circuit sided with her client, she noted.

"I am pleased the majority voted not to rehear the case. I am pleased for Jeff Wood. I know he wishes this would be over with," Dillon said.