Opinion ID: 541785
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the does' due process claim

Text: 6 The district court found the Does' federal due process claims precluded by the Supreme Court's decision in DeShaney and our en banc decision in Archie v. City of Racine, 847 F.2d 1211 (7th Cir.1988) (en banc), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1338, 103 L.Ed.2d 809 (1989). We agree with this conclusion. 7 To the extent that the Does seek to assert a liberty interest in having the DSS investigate and protect against the abuse endured by the Doe children at the hands of their mother and her beau, they are squarely barred by DeShaney (a similar child abuse case). The mother's boyfriend, like Joshua DeShaney's father, was a private actor; according to DeShaney, the language of the due process clause cannot fairly be extended to impose an affirmative obligation on the State to ensure that those interests [protected by the clause] do not come to harm through other means. 109 S.Ct. at 1003. The Court also declined to find that the state had formed a constitutionally cognizable special relationship with Joshua DeShaney by temporarily taking him out of his abusive father's custody 5 ; since the state itself did not inflict any harm upon Joshua--his father took care of that task--the state could not be held liable under section 1983 for the boy's severe injuries. 6 In the case before us, the DSS made no effort at all to intervene on the Doe children's behalf. Under DeShaney 's clear pronouncement, the DSS's failure to initiate an investigation, while possibly misguided, did not violate the Does' substantive due process rights. 8 Faced with the obstacle posed by DeShaney to their substantive due process challenge, the Does have attempted to assert a violation of their procedural due process rights. They base this change of course on footnote 2 of the DeShaney opinion, in which the Supreme Court declined to address Joshua's untimely claim of entitlement to receive protective services in accordance with the terms of the statute. 109 S.Ct. at 1003 n. 2. The Does argue in this court that section 48.981 has vested them with a property interest in having the DSS investigate a report of child abuse within 24 hours. We disagree. 9 While the property interests protected by procedural due process extend well beyond actual ownership of real estate, chattels, or money, Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 571-72, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2706, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972), not every state or municipal law, regulation or ordinance creates a constitutionally protected entitlement. In resolving a claim based on procedural due process, we must be careful to distinguish the substantive right from the procedure designed to prevent its arbitrary deprivation. Justice Blackmun recently reiterated the importance of this distinction: In procedural due process claims, the deprivation by state action of a constitutionally protected interest in 'life, liberty, or property' is not in itself unconstitutional; what is unconstitutional is the deprivation of such an interest without due process of law. Zinermon v. Burch, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 975, 983, 108 L.Ed.2d 100 (1990) (citing Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 537, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 1913-14, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981)). 10 It is essential, therefore, to a proper analysis of a procedural due process claim, like that urged by the Does in this case, that the court not confuse substance with process. One cannot have a property interest (or a life or liberty interest, for that matter) in mere procedures because 11 [p]rocess is not an end in itself. Its constitutional purpose is to protect a substantive interest to which the individual has a claim of entitlement.... The State may choose to require procedures for reasons other than protection against deprivation of substantive rights, of course, but in making that choice the State does not create an independent substantive right. 12 Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 250-51, 103 S.Ct. 1741, 1748-49, 75 L.Ed.2d 813 (1983); Cain v. Larson, 879 F.2d 1424, 1426 (7th Cir.) (It is by now well-established that in order to demonstrate a property interest worthy of protection under the fourteenth amendment's due process clause, a party may not simply rely upon the procedural guarantees of state law or local ordinance.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 540, 107 L.Ed.2d 537 (1989). Courts have observed the confusion that would result from elevating a state-mandated procedure to the status of a constitutionally protected property interest. See, e.g., Cleveland Board of Educ. v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 541, 105 S.Ct. 1487, 1492-93, 84 L.Ed.2d 494 (1985) (The categories of substance and process are distinct. Were the rule otherwise, the Clause would be reduced to a mere tautology.); Shango v. Jurich, 681 F.2d 1091, 1101 (7th Cir.1982) (Constitutionalizing every state procedural right would stand any due process analysis on its head.). 13 The district court concluded that the Does had failed to demonstrate a property interest in having the DSS conduct an investigation of their report because the Does were not required by section 48.981(2) to report suspected abuse. 7 Wisconsin case law lends support to this conclusion. State v. Williquette, 129 Wis.2d 239, 385 N.W.2d 145, 154 (1986) (statute does not require parent to report suspected child abuse, but it does not relieve parent of common law duty to protect children from known abuse). But even if the Does were required to report under that provision, we still could not find that they possessed a property interest in having the DSS undertake an investigation of their report. 8 Section 48.981 is, in essence, a set of procedures that guides Wisconsin counties in their efforts to prevent child abuse. Unarguably, these procedures assist the county in conferring the benefit of government protection upon Wisconsin's minor residents. But the procedures themselves are not benefits within the meaning of Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence. 14 In considering whether a particular state law creates an entitlement protected by the due process clause, we have sometimes looked to the functional definition articulated by Judge Hufstedler in Geneva Towers Tenants Org. v. Federated Mortgage Investors, 504 F.2d 483, 495-96 (9th Cir.1974) (Hufstedler, J., dissenting). As she explained it, 15 An entitlement is a legally enforceable interest in receiving a governmentally conferred benefit, the initial receipt or the termination of which is conditioned upon the existence of a controvertible and controverted fact. Such an interest cannot be impaired or destroyed without prior notice to the beneficiary and a meaningful opportunity for him to be heard for the purpose of resolving the factual issue. 16 Accord Eidson v. Pierce, 745 F.2d 453, 459-60 (7th Cir.1984) ([A] legitimate claim of entitlement is created only when the statutes or regulations in question establish a framework of factual conditions delimiting entitlements which are capable of being explored at a due process hearing.); Scott v. Village of Kewaskum, 786 F.2d 338, 339-40 (7th Cir.1986) (legitimate claim of entitlement, as described in Roth, is an entitlement that stands or falls on the application of rules to facts.). If there is no controvertible and controverted factual issue, there is obviously no point in holding a hearing. Judge Hufstedler's approach does not address the distinction between substance and procedure; rather, it provides a mechanism for determining how securely an individual holds a substantive interest under a particular statute or regulation. See Reed v. Village of Shorewood, 704 F.2d 943, 948 (7th Cir.1983) ([P]roperty is what is securely and durably yours under state ... law as distinct from what you hold subject to so many conditions as to make your interest meager, transitory, or uncertain.); Cornelius v. LaCroix, 838 F.2d 207, 210 (7th Cir.1988) (People have a legitimate claim of entitlement to keep that which presently securely belongs to them.). 17 Applying this principle to the case before us, we find the Does' claim of entitlement to an investigation untenable. The Does do not specify to whom the claimed entitlement belongs. It would make no sense to hold that the person filing the report has an entitlement to an investigation, although that person normally has some interest in having her report looked into. Far from creating a property interest, the statute in fact mandates the imposition of criminal penalties upon a person required to report suspected child abuse who wilfully fails to do so. See Wis.Stat.Ann. Sec. 48.981(6) (West 1987); State v. Hurd, 135 Wis.2d 266, 400 N.W.2d 42 (App.1986). Thus, the investigation cannot be considered a benefit to the person making the report of abuse, even when the statute requires that person to report and orders the counties to investigate that person's report. The intended beneficiaries of section 48.981 are, obviously, Wisconsin's children. Yet they must wait and suffer abuse unless and until someone else makes a report to the DSS. The benefit, therefore, is entirely contingent upon the perceptiveness and diligence of third parties. Consequently, it is impossible to say that the right to an investigation of a report of child abuse securely and durably belongs to anyone at all. 9 18 The elusiveness of the Does' claimed entitlement is further emphasized by application of Judge Hufstedler's functional test. What process could possibly suffice to prevent the wrongful deprivation of an investigation that is supposed to be accomplished within 24 hours of the filing of the report? Under the three-part test of Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976), the most pre-deprivation process the Does could obtain would be an evidentiary hearing. But a hearing would take at least 24 hours to complete. Moreover, no controvertible and controverted fact could be established at a hearing that would demonstrate the Does' entitlement to the investigation. In that regard, our decision in Archie informs the result in this case. In Archie, we held that an ambulance dispatcher's refusal to send an emergency rescue squad to the home of a hyperventilating woman, who later died of respiratory failure, while possibly tortious, did not amount to a violation of substantive or procedural due process. The logic of Archie clearly applies to this case: not every violation of state law infringes upon constitutional rights. Archie, 847 F.2d at 1216-18 (citing Snowden v. Hughes, 321 U.S. 1, 11, 64 S.Ct. 397, 402-03, 88 L.Ed. 497 (1944)). Should a fire department be required to hold a hearing before failing to appear at a reported blaze, lest it run afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment? Such a rule would trivialize the Constitution and circumvent the Supreme Court's decision in Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984) (Eleventh Amendment bars federal courts from ordering state officials to comply with state law). The proper means for the Does to obtain enforcement of section 48.981 (or damages for the DSS's violation of it) is through an action brought in Wisconsin court. 10