Opinion ID: 734241
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Deprivation of Liberty Interest without Due Process

Text: 23 The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects an individual's liberty interest which is viewed as including an individual's freedom to work and earn a living and to establish a home and position in one's community. Board of Regents of State Colleges, 408 U.S. at 572, 92 S.Ct. at 2706-07. Cabrol maintains that the town violated his due process rights by terminating his employment in a stigmatizing manner, thus depriving him of a liberty interest. Cabrol points to the mayor's rendition in his letter of complaints about Cabrol's chickens as ranging from stinky, unsightly to noisy. The defendants assert that Cabrol suffered no such deprivation. 24 Due process protections are triggered only upon deprivation of life, liberty, or property, see U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, § 1, and thus our initial inquiry in reviewing Cabrol's claim concerns whether he was deprived of a liberty interest. See Cuellar v. Tex. Employment Comm'n, 825 F.2d 930, 934 (5th Cir.1987). A public employee is deprived of a protected liberty interest either if terminated for a reason which was (i) false, (ii) publicized, and (iii) stigmatizing to his standing or reputation in his community or if terminated for a reason that was (i) false and (ii) had a stigmatizing effect such that (iii) he was denied other employment opportunities as a result. Board of Regents of State Colleges, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701; Codd v. Velger, 429 U.S. 624, 627, 628, 97 S.Ct. 882, 883, 884, 51 L.Ed.2d 92 (1977) (per curiam ); Moore v. Miss. Valley State Univ., 871 F.2d 545, 549 (5th Cir.1989); Wells v. Hico I.S.D., 736 F.2d 243, 256-57 (5th Cir.1984), cert. dismissed, 473 U.S. 901, 106 S.Ct. 11, 87 L.Ed.2d 672 (1985). Cabrol does not argue that his termination impaired his employment opportunities, but contends that the basis of his termination stigmatized him in his community. [I]n a small, close knit community such as Youngsville, allegations of one's owning smelly, noisy, unsightly chickens in connection with firing from one's job constitutes blackening of one's name. 25 We affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment on this claim for two reasons. A necessary prerequisite to finding the deprivation of a liberty interest in this scenario is that the publicized basis of the termination was false. Blackburn v. City of Marshall, 42 F.3d 925, 936 (5th Cir.1995). A stigma depriving a person of a liberty interest does so in part because it is a false impression broadcast to either one's personal or professional communities. See Codd, 429 U.S. 624, 97 S.Ct. 882; Ersek v. Township of Springfield, 102 F.3d 79 (3rd Cir.1996) (harm must be caused by falsity of statements and facts stated were true); Fraternal Order of Police v. Tucker, 868 F.2d 74, 82 (3rd Cir.1989) (no liberty interest implicated when press release about discharge of police officers was not misleading). While Cabrol invokes the term false in his brief, he does not indicate what aspect of the basis of his termination is false. He does not contend that he did not raise chickens in his yard, he does not contend that the mayor did not receive complaints, and he does not contend that his chickens are not stinky, unsightly or noisy. Cabrol does not argue that a dissemination of falsehoods or untruths about the circumstances surrounding his termination stigmatized him, but rather that the true circumstance of losing his job in connection with his refusal to relocate his chickens caused him some embarrassment. Such is insufficient. 26 The second reason supporting our affirming the district court on this claim is the fact that Cabrol's termination did not impose a stigma on Cabrol of the nature that works a deprivation of a liberty interest. While it is generally understood that the loss of a job can be stigmatizing in itself, the law requires more to find a liberty deprivation. Wells, 736 F.2d at 258. Terminations have imposed a stigma depriving plaintiffs of a liberty interest where the allegations supporting a termination involved dishonesty or immorality, see Board of Regents, 408 U.S. at 573, 92 S.Ct. at 2707; Blackburn, 42 F.3d at 936 n. 9, and alcoholism, disloyalty, or subversive acts, see Wisconsin v. Constantineau, 400 U.S. 433, 91 S.Ct. 507, 27 L.Ed.2d 515 (1971); Lashbrook v. Oerkfitz, 65 F.3d 1339, 1348 (7th Cir.1995). Charges supporting termination that have not imposed a stigma sufficient to implicate a constitutionally protected liberty interest include participation in an illegal strike, Burnly v. Thompson, 524 F.2d 1233, 1240 (5th Cir.1975), and incompetence and outside activities, Robertson v. Rogers, 679 F.2d 1090, 1092 (4th Cir.1982). Like these latter examples, the publicized basis of Cabrol's termination did not involve any charge against him that might seriously damage his standing and association in the community, or put Cabrol's good name, reputation, honor, or integrity at stake. Board of Regents of State Colleges, 408 U.S. at 573, 92 S.Ct. at 2707 (citations omitted). Raising chickens for cockfighting purposes is not illegal and cockfighting itself is not illegal in Louisiana. Far from serving as a stigma, Cabrol continues to embrace his avocation in a public fashion. He associates with an affiliation of chicken fighters and continues to raise the chickens in his yard. At the same time that Cabrol asserts that the public dissemination of the reason for his firing was stigmatizing, he testified that many people in Youngsville have indicated their support of his decision to retain the chickens in his yard. There is no evidence of a stigma of the magnitude compromising a liberty interest. Thus, the Fourteenth Amendment did not require any procedural safeguards in connection with Cabrol's discharge, and his argument on this issue fails.