Opinion ID: 1189190
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Due process framework

Text: The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. In order to establish a procedural due process claim, a plaintiff must show that (1) he had a life, liberty, or property interest protected by the Due Process Clause; (2) he was deprived of this protected interest; and (3) the state did not afford him adequate procedural rights prior to depriving him of the property interest. Women's Med. Prof'l Corp. v. Baird, 438 F.3d 595, 611 (6th Cir.2006) (citation omitted). This appeal concerns the question of whether Waeschle has a constitutionally protected property interest under the first element listed above. Property interests are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state lawrules or understandings that secure certain benefits and that support claims of entitlement to those benefits. Id. (quoting Bd. of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Although property rights are principally created by state law, whether a substantive interest created by the state rises to the level of a constitutionally protected property interest is a question of federal constitutional law. Whaley v. County of Tuscola, 58 F.3d 1111, 1114 (6th Cir.1995). Property interests protected by the due process clause must be more than abstract desires or attractions to a benefit. The due process clause only protects those interests to which one has a legitimate claim of entitlement. Brotherton v. Cleveland, 923 F.2d 477, 480 (6th Cir.1991) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). In the next subsection, we address the issue of whether Dragovic deprived Waeschle of a clearly established, constitutionally protected property right to her mother's brain without due process of law.