Opinion ID: 200053
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Identification of a Constitutional Right

Text: 30 The district court based its ruling on an abstract right to familial integrity inherent in the substantive component of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. In doing so, the district court relied on a series of Supreme Court cases ranging from Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923), to Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 120 S.Ct. 2054, 147 L.Ed.2d 49 (2000). These cases cover a range of issues, from constraints on a state's power to mandate compulsory public education, Meyer, 262 U.S. 390, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042, to constraints on a state's ability to mandate grandparent visitation rights, Troxel, 530 U.S. 57, 120 S.Ct. 2054, 147 L.Ed.2d 49. 31 There is a danger in the use of broad abstract terms such as familial integrity. The Supreme Court has warned against using generalized definitions of constitutional rights in the qualified immunity setting. Anderson, 483 U.S. at 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034. This court, in Frazier v. Bailey, 957 F.2d 920, 929-30 (1st Cir.1992), held that it is not sufficient for a plaintiff to allege an abstract due process liberty interest in family relationships. The qualified immunity defense requires that the familial integrity right asserted be stated with particularity. Id.; see also Hatch, 274 F.3d at 20. 32 Putting aside notions of generalized familial integrity, there are, more pertinently, much more narrow interests that are at stake here. To begin, [t]he interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children is among the most venerable of the liberty interests embedded in the Constitution. Hatch, 274 F.3d at 20; see also Croft v. Westmoreland County Children & Youth Servs., 103 F.3d 1123, 1125 (3d Cir.1997) (recognizing the constitutionally protected liberty interests that parents have in the custody, care and management of their children); Jordan v. Jackson, 15 F.3d 333, 342 (4th Cir.1994) (The state's removal of a child from his parents indisputably constitutes an interference with a liberty interest of the parents and thus triggers the procedural protections of the Fourteenth Amendment.); Weller v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 901 F.2d 387, 391 (4th Cir.1990) ([The plaintiff] clearly does have a protectible liberty interest in the care and custody of his children.); Hooks v. Hooks, 771 F.2d 935, 941 (6th Cir.1985) (It is well-settled that parents have a liberty interest in the custody of their children.) The child has a similar liberty interest in being in the care and custody of her parents. See Brokaw v. Mercer County, 235 F.3d 1000, 1018-19 (7th Cir.2000); Wooley v. City of Baton Rouge, 211 F.3d 913, 923 (5th Cir.2000); Duchesne v. Sugarman, 566 F.2d 817, 825 (2d Cir.1977); Opinion of the Justices to the Senate, 427 Mass. 1201, 691 N.E.2d 911, 915 (1998). 33 This liberty interest is protected both by the substantive component of the Due Process Clause, which constrains governmental interference with certain fundamental rights and liberty interests, and by the procedural component of the Due Process Clause, which guarantees fair process. Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 720, 117 S.Ct. 2258, 138 L.Ed.2d 772 (1997). In this case, we focus our analysis primarily on the procedural aspect, which is most directly implicated by the facts presented here. 4 What is at issue here is the right of a parent to procedural due process protections before a governmental official resolves the disputed issue of custody of a child, when there are known competing claims to custody. 34 Due process claims more commonly arise in situations where state agency officials remove a child from the custodial parents, usually where there is some suspicion of child abuse or neglect. In Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 102 S.Ct. 1388, 71 L.Ed.2d 599 (1982), the Supreme Court held that before a state may sever a parent's rights in his or her child, due process requires that the state support its allegations of abuse or neglect by at least clear and convincing evidence, id. at 768-71, 102 S.Ct. 1388. In cases where the safety of the child is at risk, there are competing liberty interests, and so the parents' rights are not absolute. Based on this principle, we have frequently upheld immunity for state actors who investigate child abuse allegations and take emergency action to protect a child. See Hatch, 274 F.3d 12, 20-22, 24-25; DeCosta v. Chabot, 59 F.3d 279 (1st Cir.1995); Frazier, 957 F.2d at 920, 931. 35 Generally speaking, the question of what process is due involves a weighing of the different interests of the child, the parents, and the state. Hatch, 274 F.3d at 20; see also Weller, 901 F.2d at 395-96 (considering interests and facts in case to determine what process was due); Opinion of the Justices, 691 N.E.2d at 915; Care & Prot. of Robert, 408 Mass. 52, 556 N.E.2d 993, 996-97 (1990). Due process protects a parent's rights even when a state temporarily removes a child before obtaining a court order, as the state may place a child in temporary custody only when it has evidence giving rise to a suspicion that the child has been abused or is in imminent danger. Hatch, 274 F.3d at 20; see also Wallis v. Spencer, 202 F.3d 1126, 1138 (9th Cir.2000); Croft, 103 F.3d at 1125. Moreover, due process requires that some sort of process be provided promptly after an emergency removal. `[I]n those extra-ordinary situations where deprivation of a protected interest is permitted without prior process, the constitutional requirements of notice and an opportunity to be heard are not eliminated, but merely postponed.' Weller, 901 F.2d at 393 (quoting Hooks, 771 F.2d at 942 (quoting Duchesne, 566 F.2d at 826)); see also Brokaw, 235 F.3d at 1021; Campbell v. Burt, 141 F.3d 927, 929 (9th Cir.1998); Jordan, 15 F.3d at 343. Both the right to predeprivation process and the right to postdeprivation process are at issue in this case. 36 Suboh's claim is that Officer Borgioli, enabled by Assistant District Attorney Murphy, effectively decided the custody dispute by turning the child over to the Kandys while knowing the Kandys were about to leave the country with the child; thus, he effectively deprived Suboh of her parental right to the care and custody of her child without providing her with due process procedures. In so doing, Borgioli ignored due process procedures established by state law to deal with situations such as this one. These include procedures for the state to take custody of a child whose guardian is unavailable, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 119, § 23(C) (2000), procedures for the state to take temporary custody of children needing care and protection, id. ch. 119, § 24 (2000), procedures for determining custody of children born out of wedlock, id. ch. 209C, § 10 (2000), and procedures for enforcing foreign custody judgments within Massachusetts, id. ch. 209B, § 12 (2000). Yet Borgioli short-circuited all of these procedures by deciding the issue on his own. 37 Generally, there is a presumption that fit parents act in the best interests of their children. Troxel, 530 U.S. at 68, 120 S.Ct. 2054. Here, there was no suspicion of child abuse or reason to suspect that the child would be in imminent peril, and thus no reason to sever Suboh's parental rights prior to the state's resolution of the custody dispute through its normal procedures. See Hatch, 274 F.3d at 20. One of Suboh's rights as a mother was the right to choose a proxy custodian for Sofia following her arrest. See In re Dep't of Pub. Welfare, 383 Mass. 573, 421 N.E.2d 28, 34 (1981) (noting, in case of incarcerated mother, that mother's presumptive right to custody of the child includ[es] the right to choose a caretaker proxy). Borgioli's actions deprived her of this right. 38 Moreover, there was evidence both that Suboh told Borgioli that the Kandys were planning on leaving the jurisdiction with Sofia within days and that Borgioli knew the Kandys' visa was about to expire and that they had return tickets to Morocco. Borgioli therefore had reason to know that Suboh would never receive any postdeprivation hearing. See Weller, 901 F.2d at 396 ([I]t is alleged that in addition to depriving [the parent] of custody without a hearing, defendants arranged for [the child] to be taken out of the jurisdiction... thereby reducing the possibility of a post-deprivation hearing.); Hooks, 771 F.2d at 942 (Here the children were turned over ... allegedly with the knowledge that they would immediately be taken... out of the jurisdiction ..., effectively eliminating the opportunity for plaintiff to receive a post-deprivation hearing.). 39 We think it plain that Suboh alleges a violation of a constitutional right.