Opinion ID: 692064
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Damages Claim on Due Process of Law:

Text: 13 Plaintiffs claim that, in destroying their shelters and personal property without first notifying them and providing them an opportunity for a hearing, defendants violated plaintiffs' right to due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. To show that their right to due process was clearly established, plaintiffs rely mainly on Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67, 92 S.Ct. 1983, 32 L.Ed.2d 556 (1972). 6 Fuentes stands for the general proposition that the Fifth Amendment requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before the government deprives a person of his property. Such a general assertion of one's constitutional rights, however, is insufficient to overcome a qualified immunity defense. The Supreme Court explained: 14 [T]he right to due process of law is quite clearly established by the Due Process Clause, and thus there is a sense in which any action that violates that Clause (no matter how unclear it may be that the particular action is a violation) violates a clearly established right. Much the same could be said of any other constitutional or statutory violation. But if the test of clearly established law were to be applied at this level of generality, it would bear no relationship to the objective legal reasonableness that is the touchstone of Harlow. Plaintiffs would be able to convert the rule of qualified immunity ... into a rule of virtually unqualified liability simply by alleging [a] violation of extremely abstract rights. 15 Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987). 16 Plaintiffs, then, must show that their right to due process was clearly established given the particular facts of this case. Plaintiffs have cited no authority that clearly states the circumstances in which homeless persons retain a property interest in the shelters they erect or whether homeless persons retain a property interest in shelters erected and property stored, without permission, on private property. The district court, therefore, properly concluded that defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiffs' due process claim.