UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ MARK BAMBACH, individually and on behalf of his │ minor children; E.B. and M.B., in their own right, │ Plaintiffs-Appellees, │ │ v. > No. 23-1372 │ │ GINA MOEGLE, individually, in her capacity as │ Children’s Protective Services Investigator, Michigan │ Department of Health and Human Services; SUSAN │ SHAW, individually, in her capacity as Children’s │ Protective Services Supervisor, Michigan Department │ of Health and Human Services, │ Defendants-Appellants. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit. No. 2:18-cv-14039—Denise Page Hood, District Judge.

Argued: January 24, 2024

Decided and Filed: February 8, 2024

Before: McKEAGUE, LARSEN, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.

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COUNSEL ARGUED: Neil A. Giovanatti, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Brian M. Garner, TAYLOR BUTTERFIELD, P.C., Lapeer, Michigan, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Neil A. Giovanatti, Patrick L. O'Brien, OFFICE OF THE MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Brian M. Garner, TAYLOR BUTTERFIELD, P.C., Lapeer, Michigan, for Appellees. No. 23-1372 Bambach, et al. v. Moegle, et al. Page 2

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OPINION _________________

McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge. Gina Moegle and her supervisor Susan Shaw, both employees of the Children’s Protective Services program in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, appeal the district court’s partial denial of qualified immunity for eleven claims filed against various State of Michigan defendants by Mark Bambach and his minor children under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

We find that no clearly established law put the state defendants on notice that they were violating the Bambachs’ Fourteenth and Fourth Amendment rights. Accordingly, we REVERSE the district court’s denial of summary judgment and REMAND for entry of an order dismissing the Bambachs’ claims against the state defendants.

I. BACKGROUND

Mark Bambach1 and his two children first sued Gina Moegle and Susan Shaw (“state defendants”), as well as an additional state social worker and the municipal government of Lapeer County, Michigan, on December 23, 2018. Relevant to this appeal, the Bambachs alleged five counts under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Moegle: that she (1) removed the Bambach children from Bambach’s custody without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment, (2) removed the Bambach children from Bambach’s custody in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s procedural-due-process protections, (3) removed the children in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s substantive-due-process protections, (4) executed a removal order that Moegle knew contained falsehoods and material omissions in violation of the Fourth