Charles Mikich v. City & County of San Francisco

MEMORANDUM

Charles and Alexis Mikieh appeal the district court’s order granting summary judgment to Defendants in the Mikiches’ 42 U.S.C. § 1988 action. The district court held that Defendants were protected by qualified immunity even though they removed the Mikiches’ infant daughter AM from her parents without first obtaining a warrant. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

“Government officials are not entitled to qualified immunity if (1) the facts taken in the light most favorable to the party asserting the injury show that the defendants’ conduct violated a constitutional right and (2) the right was clearly established at the time of the alleged violation.” Sandoval v. Las Vegas Metro. Police Dep’t, 756 F.3d 1154, 1160 (9th Cir.2014) •(internal alterations and quotation marks omitted). “Parents and children have a well-elaborated constitutional right to live together without governmental interference. That right is an essential liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that parents and children will not be separated by the state without due process of law except in an emergency.” Wallis v. Spencer, 202 F.3d 1126, 1136 (9th Cir.2000)…