Opinion ID: 2399215
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Fourteenth Amendment Rights

Text: [¶ 22] Botting contends that access to level three of the grievance process is an interest created by the State and protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Maine Constitution, article I, section 6-A. [13] The Commissioner's denial of access to the process, maintains Botting, violates her right to due process. We disagree. [¶ 23] The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Maine Constitution, article I, section 6-A protect individuals from deprivations of life, liberty, or property by the State without due process of law. U.S. CONST. amend. XIV § 1; ME. CONST. art. I, § 6-A. See also ME. CONST. art. I, § 19 (providing a right to redress for injuries). To find a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, therefore, there must be (1) state action; (2) a deprivation of a life, liberty, or property interest; and (3) inadequate process. Botting simply asserts that the grievance process itself is a protectable interest. The interest in procedure itself is not an interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, Jackson v. Town of Searsport, 456 A.2d 852, 858 (Me. 1983); Davila-Lopes v. Zapata, 111 F.3d 192, 195 (1st Cir.1997), or the Maine Constitution, article I, section 6-A, see Cent. Me. Power Co. v. PUC, 1999 ME 119, ¶ 24 n. 12, 734 A.2d 1120, 1131 (The equal protection guarantees of these provisions are coextensive.). Without a deprivation of a protected interest, Botting's due process argument fails. The entry is: Judgment affirmed.