Case Law Development: No Right of Action under Section 1983 for State's Failure to Distribute Child Support Payments in Compliance with Statutory Provisions

Child support enforcement agencies are faring better in 1983 litigation than child protection workers.   In this case, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld summary judgment for the state child support enforcement agency in this Section 1983 case brought by custodial parents who receive child support payments collected, distributed, and disbursed by the State of Alabama.

The district court held that the parents had failed as a matter of law (1) to establish 42 U.S.C. § 657 creates individual rights, enforceable under § 1983, to distribution of child support payments in strict compliance with § 657; and (2) to show a § 1983 violation of their procedural due process rights.  The Court of Appeals affirmed.

Arrington v. Helms, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 3434 (February 13, 2006) bgf