Opinion ID: 463530
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Perry's Liberty Interest Claim

Text: 21 Although not claiming a life or property interest, Perry does claim a liberty interest. He does not, however, claim a liberty interest violation of the type which restrains him physically, only the liberty to be a federal law enforcement officer. 22 This is not the usual case where a government employee has been fired or not rehired. Neither party has cited any case dealing with a liberty interest in the preemployment context, and the court's own research has uncovered only two cases on the issue. Both of these cases summarily conclude that an unsuccessful applicant for federal employment has no interest requiring due process protection absent infringement of a liberty interest such as reputation or free speech, [or] impairment of ... [the applicant's] ability to get another job. Carmi v. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, 620 F.2d 672 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 892, 101 S.Ct. 249, 66 L.Ed.2d 117 (1980). See also Thompson v. Link, 386 F.Supp. 897 (E.D.Mo.1974). 23 In the more serious situation of a firing or failure to rehire a government employee, a liberty interest is implicated if either (1) the individual's good name, reputation, honor or integrity are at stake by such charges as immorality, dishonesty, alcoholism, disloyalty, Communism or subversive acts or (2) the state imposes a stigma or other disability on the individual which forecloses other opportunities.... Munson v. Friske, 754 F.2d 683, 693 (7th Cir.1985). This case does not fall within any of the categories mentioned in Carmi and Munson. The FBI has neither injured Perry's reputation nor foreclosed his employment opportunities, and Perry does not allege an infringement of free speech.
24 Perry has not sustained an injury to reputation cognizable under the due process clause. The FBI memorandum does not accuse Perry of an act of dishonesty that might be criminal. Perry's barroom talk is not of great moment. The FBI, for instance, did not label him as an embezzler or a thief. Nor is there anything in the memorandum to suggest any immorality whatsoever. Those types of accusations are examples cited in Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 573, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2707, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972) as implicating a liberty interest. The memorandum information about Perry approaches nothing involving moral turpitude. See Lawson v. Sheriff of Tippecanoe County, Ind., 725 F.2d 1136, 1138 (7th Cir.1984). 25 The memorandum states, for example, that in October 1974, a United States Attorney declined to prosecute Perry for impersonating a federal officer, but asked that Perry be interviewed and admonished. Perry argues that this admonishment stigmatizes him because it suggests to any knowledgeable reader that the United States Attorney believed the allegations in the report were true. That is not a reasonable inference, as it could also be speculated that the admonition was only precautionary and did not represent a determination that the allegations were true. In any event, whatever the United States Attorney may have believed is immaterial. The memorandum's description of the admonishment does not amount to a stigma. 26 Most of what was contained in the FBI memorandum, even without the names of the informants (although Perry's father was identified), was easily subject to verification by the receiving agencies since most of it directly involved other police agencies in the same general area. Likewise Perry knew where he had worked, why employment was terminated, and if and when and for what he had been stopped, questioned and admonished. Most was information he should have had little trouble refuting. In addition to being clearly designated that it was not to be construed as a recommendation nor a conclusion of the FBI, the information was presented in a straightforward manner without editorial comment. The memorandum also contained several direct denials by Perry made at the time of the various incidents. 27 The memorandum was not distributed to some agency not capable of evaluating or verifying that type of raw information. The memorandum specifically instructs that it is the property of the FBI and is merely being loaned to the requesting agency. It further directs that the memorandum and its contents are not to be distributed outside that particular agency. There was no general widespread publication of the memorandum even within the government. The memorandum's distribution was strictly limited to a few specified law enforcement agencies all within the executive branch of the federal government. We need not, therefore, consider at this time the consequences of any potential for wider distribution of this or similar memoranda. 28 It is difficult to determine from an examination of the maze of pleadings, amended complaints, exhibits, affidavits, and briefs just exactly what information in the memorandum Perry claimed from time to time was false. Before this litigation began Perry wrote the Director of the FBI and took up the memorandum incidents one at a time. In that letter, for instance, he asks that the paragraph about him impersonating an officer be deleted as the incident was not sufficient to warrant prosecution. He does not deny that in fact he did what the report said he did. Likewise he asks that the paragraph about having a deputy marshal's badge be deleted because no prosecution was commenced. Again he does not deny that in fact he flashed the badge of a federal officer. It was reported that he carried numerous weapons in the trunk of his car. He does not deny it, but says he sees no relevance to it. Another item reported him carrying a .44 magnum pistol and having a police radio. Perry says that should be expunged since he had not been convicted for it. He does not deny the truth of the information. He also asks generally for deletions of all references to impersonating officers since he was not convicted. He does not deny the impersonations. Perry also claims that some things never happened. 29 Even if Perry had originally and explicitly denied each and every item in the memorandum, however, there is a pattern of conduct which emerges which fully justified the FBI's dissemination of the memorandum to interested federal law enforcement agencies to serve as employment investigative leads, but leads which obviously required further verification. It was not the responsibility of the FBI to run out all these leads for the employment purposes of other agencies. The FBI was neither hiring Perry nor advising any other agency about hiring him. The FBI file was the result of an investigation of Perry for allegedly impersonating federal officers. The agencies could follow the leads or ignore them in their own discretion. The agencies could hire or not in their own discretion. The FBI never imposed a ban on hiring Perry. 30 Putting all Perry's impersonation and other conduct aside, the various police agency evaluations of Perry for which he had worked which stated, for instance, that Perry would not be rehired because of poor attitude, failure to obey orders, and misuse of his job for personal gain is classic employment information, not within any police or criminal record category. That information alone, easily verifiable, could justify employment rejection by a federal law enforcement agency. Perry, however, did not make known on his employment application those short-time jobs in law enforcement which may have had unsatisfactory conclusions. 31
32 The FBI did not impose a stigma upon Perry which foreclosed his employment opportunities. Adams v. Walker, 492 F.2d 1003 (7th Cir.1974), somewhat clarifies the meaning of the word stigma. After examining the cases cited in Board of Regents v. Roth, this court in Adams concluded that no stigma to reputation occurred when the Governor of Illinois dismissed the plaintiff from his position as chairman of the Illinois Liquor Commission for incompetence, neglect of duty and malfeasance in office. The Adams court noted that nothing in the complaint even remotely suggests a legal barrier to future employment analogous to denial of admission to the bar, disqualification from all government employment, ... or sending substantial adverse information to a professional licensing agency. 492 F.2d at 1009. 33 No legal barrier to Perry's future employment in the government or elsewhere was ever imposed, except for a short period due to a mistake of the Civil Service Commission which caused him no harm. No barrier exists now. The record contains a letter dated May 1, 1978 from the Civil Service Commission informing Perry that this office has made a determination in your favor based on known suitability matters.... Your eligibility will provide you with full consideration for all positions for which you qualify. Perry's brief confirms that the Commission conducted an intensive investigation and ruled that plaintiff was suitable for ... [federal] employment and ordered the restoration of plaintiff's name to all eligibility rosters on which he had attained placement. 34 Although dissemination of the FBI memorandum may have lessened Perry's employment opportunities in certain areas of the federal government, a liberty interest is not implicated merely by a reduction in an individual's attractiveness to potential employers. Lipp v. Board of Education of City of Chicago, 470 F.2d 802, 805 (7th Cir.1972), quoted with approval in Hadley v. County of DuPage, 715 F.2d 1238, 1247 (7th Cir.1983). See also Roth, 408 U.S. at 575, 92 S.Ct. at 2708 (It stretches the concept of liberty too far to suggest that a person is deprived of 'liberty' when he simply is not rehired in one job but remains as free as before to seek another.). 35 The FBI conduct about which Perry complains was not disciplinary or punitive. The FBI conducted a routine investigation of Perry on possible criminal charges. An argument arose on appeal about whether the FBI acted maliciously in disseminating the memorandum, or had intentionally fabricated the incidents. We cannot find in the record that Perry attempted to show that the FBI actually fabricated false information and distributed it with some malicious intent. At most the FBI information was only incorrect. Judge Marovitz did not mention any claim of deliberate falsification. If the FBI had some malicious intent it likely would have included in its memorandum other uncomplimentary information it had about Perry. 5 It could also have slanted the report and included some admonition about not hiring Perry. The FBI did none of these things. In his post-argument brief Perry himself, however, helps lay that malicious and intentional issue argument to the side, and takes the position that malicious dissemination and intentional fabrication are not essential elements of his liberty claim. Perry relies only on the five-page memorandum. That side issue of the case, therefore, need no longer be pursued. 36 The BATF conducted its own investigation and did not rely exclusively upon the FBI report in making its employment decision. The BATF officer who made the employment decision stated that even without the FBI report and based on BATF's own investigation he would have concluded that Perry was not suitable for employment as an agent. BATF's decision determined only that Perry was not suitable for one particular job; BATF neither publicly criticized Perry nor expressed any opinion about Perry's suitability for another government position. BATF simply exercised its own judgment about the desirability of hiring Perry for a specific position in that one agency. A mere failure to hire, considering all the circumstances of this case, does not meet the stigma plus standard as characterized in Colaizzi v. Walker, 542 F.2d 969 (7th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 960, 97 S.Ct. 1610, 51 L.Ed.2d 811 (1977). 6