Source: http://www.leagle.com/decision/20061727433F3d1294_11726/MALDONADO%20v.%20CITY%20OF%20ALTUS
Timestamp: 2017-07-24 00:56:58
Document Index: 394049207

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 1981', '§ 1981', '§ 1983', '§ 2']

433 F.3d 1294 (2006) | MALDONADO v. CITY OF ALTUS | Leagle.com
Citing Case 433 F.3d 1294 (2006)
FootNotes * The Honorable Robert C. Brack, United States District Judge for the District of New Mexico, sitting by designation.
2. In Burns v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 330 F.3d 1275, 1288 n. 10 (10th Cir.2003), we recognized a circuit split over whether the 1991 amendments to § 1981 overruled Jett v. Dallas Indep. Sch. Dist., 491 U.S. 701, 733, 109 S.Ct. 2702, 105 L.Ed.2d 598 (1989), which held that "the express cause of action for damages created by § 1983 constitutes the exclusive federal remedy for violation of the rights guaranteed in § 1981 by state governmental units." Burns did not resolve the issue for this circuit, nor will we. Because we affirm qualified immunity for the individual defendants on the § 1981 and § 1983 claims and because the City did not raise this argument, we do not address this issue.
"All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State . . . to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens. . . . "
1. This Circuit as well as our sister circuits have applied the four-part test cited by the majority only to First Amendment retaliation claims. See, e.g., Belcher v. City of McAlester, 324 F.3d 1203, 1205 (10th Cir.2003); Hulen v. Yates, 322 F.3d 1229, 1237 (10th Cir.2003); Clinger v. N.M. Highlands Univ. Bd. of Regents, 215 F.3d 1162, 1165 (10th Cir.2000); Gardetto v. Mason, 100 F.3d 803, 811 (10th Cir.1996); see also Evans-Marshall v. Bd. of Educ., 428 F.3d 223, 228-29 (6th Cir.2005); Gill v. Pidlypchak, 389 F.3d 379, 380-82 (2d Cir.2004); Cygan v. Wis. Dep't of Corr., 388 F.3d 1092, 1098 (7th Cir.2004); Metzger v. DaRosa, 367 F.3d 699, 702 (7th Cir.2004); Branton v. City of Dallas, 272 F.3d 730, 739 (5th Cir.2001); McVey v. Stacy, 157 F.3d 271, 277-78 (4th Cir.1998); O'Donnell v. Barry, 148 F.3d 1126, 1133 (D.C.Cir.1998); Johnson v. Clifton, 74 F.3d 1087, 1092 (11th Cir.1996).
The majority states that in Belcher the court declined to apply the National Treasury test. Maj. op. at 1314. In Belcher, however, the plaintiff challenged the reprimand received for engaging in allegedly protected speech. He did not challenge the city's ex ante rule prohibiting city employees from contacting city council members privately. The claim in Belcher, is fundamentally different from Plaintiff's claim in this case. The plaintiff in Belcher challenged an adverse employment action, whereas the Plaintiffs in this case challenge an ex ante prohibition. These are two different claims requiring two different tests.
2. The majority states that National Treasury is inapposite because in that case there was no question that the employees' speech constituted a matter of public concern. Maj. op. at 1313-1314. It is true that the Court agreed in National Treasury that the employees' speech involved matters of public concern. But the question of whether speech touches on a matter of public concern is not determinative as to whether the case is properly characterized as an ex ante prior restraint case requiring application of only the two-part test, or as a post hoc retaliation case requiring application of the four-part Pickering-Mt. Healthy test. The four-part test is only applicable if Plaintiffs allege an adverse employment action or a detrimental employment decision. Plaintiffs in National Treasury, like the Plaintiffs in this case, made no such allegations.
3. The issue, moreover, appears to grow increasingly divisive every year. Prior to 1981, only two states had laws declaring English their official language, but by 1996, twenty-two states and forty municipalities had enacted English language legislation. Brian L. Porto, Annotation, "English-Only" Requirement for Conduct of Public Affairs, 94 A.L.R. 5th 537, § 2 (2004). As of 2003, twenty-three states had enacted some form of English language legislation, and since 2000, courts in Alaska, Utah, Oklahoma and Iowa have addressed their validity. See Kenya Hart, Defending Against A "Death by English": English-Only, Spanish-Only, and a Gringa's Suggestions for Community Support of Language Rights, 14 BERKELEY LA RAZA L.J. 177, 178-79, 187 (2003). In an opinion decided in 2002, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma ruled that an initiative petition proposing a state-wide English-only statute was constitutionally flawed because the proposed law ran afoul of the state constitution's free speech provisions. In re Initiative Petition No. 366, 46 P.3d 123, 125-28 (Okla.2002). In announcing its decision, the court noted the intensity of the state-wide debate sparked by the initiative. Id. at 125. Moreover, powerful public policy groups on both sides of the debate continue to marshal substantial resources to support or defeat English-only legislation at the national, state and municipal levels. See Hart, supra, at 178-79; see also Michael Albert Thomas Pagni, The Constitutionality of English-Only Provisions in the Public Employee Speech Arena: An Examination of Yniguez v. Arizonians for Official English, 24 HASTINGS CONST. L.Q. 247, 248-49 (1996); Margaret Robertson, Abridging the Freedom of Non-English Speech: English-Only Legislation and the Free Speech Rights of Government Employees, 2001 BYU L. REV. 1641, 1641-42.
one would be surprised to learn that when [the immigrant] conducts a transaction at a department store in English, she is communicating pride in America or even pride in her ability to speak English; [instead] the natural assumption is that the customer simply wants to buy a product and the purpose of carrying on a conversation in English is to accomplish that end.
Maj. op. at 1311. The problem with this illustration is it devalues the speaker's motives, rendering an evaluation of the speech completely dependant on the listener's ability or willingness to interpret it. Even if Plaintiffs' English-speaking co-workers did not interpret Plaintiffs' use of Spanish as an expression of their ethnic pride, a court must look to the motive of the speaker, not the reaction of the listener, in determining whether speech was on a matter of public concern. Gardetto, 100 F.3d at 814 ("The controversial character of a statement is irrelevant to the question of whether it deals with a matter of public concern, . . . because the focus is on the motive of the speaker." (internal citation and quotation marks omitted)). Just as a co-worker of the plaintiff in Nichol v. Arin Intermediate Unit 28, 268 F.Supp.2d 536 (W.D.Pa.2003), could see Ms. Nichol's gold cross necklace as merely a piece of personal adornment, an English-speaking City employee potentially could view Plaintiffs' use of Spanish as nothing more than a means to accomplish an end — the use of language to convey a request, a question, or a command. The pertinent inquiry here as in Nichol, however, is not whether Plaintiffs actually succeeded in expressing pride in their identity, but whether pride in their identity was the motive for their expression and whether pride in their identity is a matter for public concern.