Government Workers Wrongly Seize A Child From Parents. Should They Be Made To Pay? 0 The principle of qualified immunity protects workers in their official actions. But as a recent Hawaii case shows, not always.
Imagine this scenario: A public official conspires with the biological father of a 10-year-old girl to seize the girl from the mother who is raising her.
By withholding a crucial fact, they mislead a judge into issuing a restraining order against the mother that prohibits her from contact with the daughter who lives with her.
On the strength of that order, the girl is taken from her school and flown across the state to live with a father she never knew.
Should that public official be liable for damages in a civil suit?
