Miller v. California

355 F.3d 1172 Charles W. MILLER; Patricia A. Miller, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. State of CALIFORNIA, Department of Social Services, Defendant, and Yuba County Human Services Agency; Child Protective Services; Evelyn Joslin; Mike Noda; Phyllis Bullard; Penny Elliott; Ginny Tuscano, Defendants-Appellees. No. 02-16780. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted December 5, 2003. Filed January 22, 2004. Roderick L. MacKenzie, MacKenzie & Brody, Sacramento, California, for the plaintiffs-appellants. Jennifer E. Duggan, Terence J. Cassidy, Avery E. Dority, Porter, Scott, Weiberg & Delehant, Sacramento, California, for the defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Frank C. Damrell, Jr., District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-02061-FCD. Before BRIGHT, * D.W. NELSON, and RYMER, Circuit Judges. RYMER, Circuit Judge. 1 We must decide two related questions arising out of a protracted and contentious dependency dispute: whether noncustodial grandparents, acting as de facto parents to grandchildren who are dependents of the juvenile court, have a substantive due process right to family integrity…