Court Opinion

ID: 9492837
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:51:42.030396+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:31.152032
License: Public Domain

DeMOSS, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the denial of rehearing only:
On December 6, 1999, when the majority filed its original opinion in this case, it acknowledged that:
Whether a constitutional liberty interest is implicated by the facts of this case is highly questionable.
Kipps v. Caillier, 197 F.3d 765, 769 n. 4 (5th Cir.1999). Now, less than 90 days *207later and without citation to any relevant intervening decision, the majority jumps to the following conclusion:
We have little trouble finding that a constitutional interest in familial association does, in fact, exist and was clearly established at the time Kipps was fired.
Majority Opinion, at 204. This 180° turnabout permits the majority to at least superficially comply with our precedent requiring that it first address the first prong of the qualified immunity analysis, by finding that the Kippses’ alleged a violation of a clearly established constitutional right, but then, in the end, return to the actual holding of the original opinion that:
The defendants are entitled to qualified immunity because their conduct was objectively reasonable.
There are several serious problems with the majority’s analysis of the first prong of the qualified immunity inquiry in this case. First, the majority spills a lot of ink driving home the importance of the family. I wholeheartedly agree that family relationships are important. I even agree that the United States Constitution affords parents certain protections from unreasonable state interference in decisions regarding the care, custody, training, and education of their children. I do not agree, however, that the Constitution may be invoked to remedy every stupid, irrational, or unreasonable decision taken by a state official, regardless of whether there is actually any tangible interference in the family/parental relationship. The majority apparently disagrees, stating that:
Kipps was fired because of his actual association with his son. This is separate and distinct from a claim of state interference with that association.
I can find no logical or jurisprudential support for the existence of a constitutional right of association that is so easily divorced from state interference with that right.
The majority’s stated objective in making this questionable distinction is nothing more than an attempt to avoid the defendants’ argument that the level of state interference must be such that the facts state a claim of constitutional magnitude. Majority Opinion at 205. I find the majority’s cursory rejection of this argument unpersuasive, and therefore register my disagreement with the majority’s view that some tangible level of state interference is not required to state a constitutional claim for violation of the plaintiffs’ associational rights.
Having established that there is a clearly established right to familial association that is separate and apart from the right to be free from state interference with familial relationships, the majority next remarks that the facts in this case actually fall in the heartland, rather than “on the fringe,” of the jurisprudence addressing the constitutional right to familial integrity. The majority’s conclusion in this regard is supported by nothing more than the assumption that the case involves a parent/child relationship. Majority Opinion at 205-06. I could not disagree more. At all times relevant to the actions in controversy in this suit, Kyle Kipps was over the age of 18, and under Louisiana law, his parents could no longer tell him where he had to go to school. There is no dispute whatsoever about the fact that Kyle Kipps himself, rather than his parents, made the decision to go to school at LSU and play football there. There is no dispute that Kyle had full and ample opportunity to discuss with his parents the choices and alternatives he had about going to college and playing football. Furthermore, there is no allegation that any of the defendants’ conduct caused any breach or separation of the love and affection existing between the Kippses and their adult son. There are, therefore, no facts tending to establish any actual interference with the Kippses’ familial relationships. I conclude that the Kippses have not alleged a clearly established right which some conduct of the defendants violated.
*208To the extent the majority concludes otherwise, I believe they are conflating the issues of whether a constitutional right exists in the abstract, and whether that right is implicated on the facts alleged by the plaintiffs. The majority assumes that the mere existence in the abstract of some clearly established constitutional right, in this case the right to “actual” familial association, is sufficient to defeat a claim of qualified immunity. But that is not the law. We have consistently required more than that the plaintiffs be able to name or invoke some clearly established constitutional right. A defendants’ properly invoked claim of qualified immunity cannot be defeated absent factual allegations which, if accepted as true, at least potentially state a claim for violation of that right. See, e.g., Shipp v. McMahon, 199 F.3d 256, 262 (5th Cir.2000); Petta v. Rivera, 143 F.3d 895, 899 (5th Cir.1998); Cantu v. Rocha, 71 F.3d 795, 805-08 (5th Cir.1996). For that reason, the relevant issue is not whether there might, in an appropriate case, be some constitutionally impermissible measure of intrusion into the familial relationship. The question is whether the Kippses’ factual allegations even potentially set forth a claim for an intrusion of constitutional magnitude in this case. For the reasons stated, I do not believe the mere existence of a parent/child relationship between the Kippses and their son is sufficient to state a cause of action for such an intrusion.1 I would therefore base the decision in this case upon the Kippses’ failure to state the violation of a constitutional claim, rather than on the patently ridiculous premise that the head coach’s decision to fire Kyle’s father because Kyle decided to attend LSU was objectively reasonable. •

. The majority claims I have "missed the point” by failing to realize that only Rexford Kipps alleged a violation of his right to familial association. I beg to differ. There are three plaintiffs in this case and all of the allegations relating to the plaintiffs' familial association rights are consistently framed in terms of all three plaintiffs or all three complainants. See, e.g., Complaint ¶ 15 ("the defendants’ actions impermissibly infringe upon complainants' right to make intimate, personal decisions regarding their familial relationships”); Id. at ¶ 16 (defendants "violated complainants’ right to association as guaranteed by the First, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and Rexford ‘Rex’ Kipps’ right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution”). That being the case, I am frankly baffled by the majority's comment that only Rexford Kipps is raising the claim.