Opinion ID: 1040084
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Count IV - Procedural Due Process

Text: In count IV of the amended complaint, Plaintiffs claim that they were deprived of their constitutionally protected status as an “approved lessor” for millionaire parties without due process of law. “The Fourteenth Amendment’s procedural protection of property is a safeguard of the security of interests that a person has already acquired in specific benefits.” Bd. of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 576 (1972). Property interests are not created by the Constitution, instead they are created and defined by independent sources such as state law. Id. at 577. “To have a property interest in a benefit, a person clearly must have more than an abstract need or desire for it. He must have more than a unilateral expectation of it. He must instead have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it.” Id. “[A] benefit is not a protected entitlement if government officials may grant or deny it in their discretion.” Town of Castle Rock, Colo. v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748, 756 (2005). No. 12-2384 Top Flight Entm’t, et al. v. Schuette, et al. Page 11 The district court dismissed count IV, reasoning that Plaintiffs did not point to any source of state law or regulations from which they derived their expectation of entitlement, nor did they show a constitutionally cognizable property interest in their alleged status as an “approved lessor.” Indeed, Plaintiffs concede as much in their complaint, alleging that: “There is neither a formal nor informal procedure for qualifying as an approved location at which charitable gaming events may be conducted. . . . Whether or not a location qualifies as an approved location at which gaming events may be conducted is left to the unfettered discretion of employees of the Bureau.” Michigan law grants the Lottery Commissioner (now the Executive Director of Michigan Gaming Control Board) the discretion to refuse a millionaire-party license to an otherwise qualified organization if the proposed location is “not in compliance with the requirements of the act, these rules, terms of probation, directives of the bureau, public policy of the state of Michigan, or any other local, state, or federal law or regulation[.]” Mich. Admin. Code r. 432.21109(3). Millionaire-party licenses are issued to qualified organizations (not locations) and the licenses are granted in the Lottery Commissioner’s discretion. See Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 432.104; 432.104a. Plaintiffs’ argument that they “accrued approved location/lessor status” as a protected entitlement is thus contradicted by both Michigan law and Plaintiffs’ own complaint, as discretionary benefits are not constitutionally protected entitlements. We affirm the dismissal of count IV of the amended complaint for failing to state a claim for which relief can be granted.