Actions of state officials undertaken in a reasonable belief of suspected child abuse that even interfere with family rights are protected by qualified immunity. Fletcher v. Brown County, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21882 (D. Neb. March 18, 2008):<\/p>\n
However, the right to family integrity, that is, a parent’s right to the care, custody and management of their children, is not absolute and is limited by the compelling governmental interest in the protection of minor children. Manzano<\/em>, 60 F.3d at 509-510. Indeed, the right to family integrity has been characterized by the First Circuit as “a parent’s right to custody in the absence of a case worker’s reasonable suspicion of child abuse.” Hatch v. Department for Children, Youth and Their Families<\/em>, 274 F.3d 12 (1st Cir. 2001). The need to balance these competing interests to determine the legality of the investigator’s conduct usually means that the parent’s asserted right cannot be considered clearly established in the context of a child abuse investigation. See, e.g., Foy v. Holston<\/em>, 94 F.3d at 1535 n.8 (11th Cir. 1996) (“When the law contemplates some kind of balancing test to determine the ultimate question of lawfulness or unlawfulness of an act, qualified immunity almost always applies to shield the public servant defendant.”). Thus, whatever rights a parent has to be free from an alleged unreasonably conducted investigation regarding suspected child abuse, such rights are not clearly established. As set forth in Foy<\/em>, “state officials who act to investigate or to protect children where there are allegations of abuse almost never act within the contours of ‘clearly established law.'” Id<\/em>. at 1537.<\/p>\n
The Eighth Circuit has stated the rule regarding qualified immunity in child abuse investigation cases simply:<\/p>\n
[W]hen a state official pursuing a child abuse investigation takes an action which would otherwise unconstitutionally disrupt familial integrity, he or she is entitled to qualified immunity, if such action is properly founded upon a reasonable suspicion of child abuse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Dornheim v. Sholes<\/em>, 430 F.3d 919, 926 (8th Cir. 2005) (citations omitted). As long as police officers “were within the confines of” the child abuse investigations, qualified immunity will apply. Id<\/em>. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading