Opinion ID: 390874
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Executive Discretion and Patronage Dismissals

Text: 16 The trial judge instructed the jury that Barrett and the plaintiff class bore the burden of proof in establishing that Sheriff Thomas' personnel actions were politically motivated patronage firings. The jury found that plaintiffs had carried their burden. Yet, Thomas insists that the broad discretion vested in Texas county sheriffs by Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6869 (Vernon 1960) authorizes his conduct. Under art. 6869, deputies serve at the pleasure of the sheriff. 17 Sheriffs, like other elected county officials in Texas, have indisputably wide-ranging discretion in the selection of their employees. Familias Unidas v. Briscoe, 619 F.2d 391, 404 (5th Cir. 1980). It follows that deputy sheriffs have no legal entitlement to their jobs as public employees; the sheriff may fire them for many reasons or for no articulable reason at all. Nevertheless, there are overriding limits on the sheriff's discretion in employment matters. He may not condition continuation of public employment on an employee's relinquishment of the First Amendment liberties of political belief and association. Perry v. Sinderman, 408 U.S. 593, 597-98, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 2697-98, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972). The establishment of a political orthodoxy among public employees by an executive official is constitutionally impermissible. 18 The facts and legal claims presented in this case are strikingly similar to those confronted by the Supreme Court in Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976). Republican non-civil-service employees of the Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff's Office who had been swept out of their jobs in the wave of political patronage hirings and firings following the replacement of the incumbent Republican sheriff with a Democrat sued Sheriff Elrod for depriving them of their constitutionally protected rights to affiliate with a political party of their choice. Five members of the Supreme Court joined in holding these patronage firings unconstitutional deprivations of political liberty. 19 The plurality opinion noted that political patronage dismissals restrict the individual liberties of belief and association at the core of the First Amendment. While these rights are not absolute, they may not be trenched upon absent a showing that the liberty-restraining patronage system furthers some vital government end by a means that is least restrictive of freedom of belief and association  Id. at 363, 96 S.Ct. at 2685. Sheriff Thomas has not pointed to a vital governmental interest served by making his deputies toe the prescribed political line. He has likewise not shown that such line-toeing is the least restrictive means of achieving a legitimate objective. 20 This Court recently addressed § 1983 claims regarding political patronage firings emanating from the Lake County, Florida, Sheriff's Office. Tanner v. McCall, 625 F.2d 1183 (5th Cir. 1980). In holding that the Tanner plaintiffs had failed to meet the burden of making a prima facie showing that Sheriff McCall's personnel decisions were motivated by political animus, the Court set out a legal blueprint for applying Elrod v. Burns principles to § 1983 claims alleging political patronage dismissals. Tanner contemplates a three-step inquiry on review. First, have the plaintiffs alleged conduct that, if proven, would constitute an infringement of their constitutional rights? Second, have the plaintiffs made a prima facie showing that impermissible political animus, motivated the challenged personnel decisions? Finally, have the defendants rebutted such a showing with sufficient evidence of nonpolitical motives for the challenged conduct? 21 The pleadings filed by Barrett and the plaintiff class properly put in issue the constitutional claim. The trial record amply supports the jury's finding that the constitutionally protected political activities or associations of Barrett and the plaintiff class were motivating factors in Sheriff Thomas' personnel decisions. On these facts, the plaintiffs have met their burden of pleading and proving a deprivation of constitutional rights motivated by political animus. Sheriff Thomas, on the other hand, has failed to rebut this showing to the jury's satisfaction with evidence that the same employment decisions would have been reached regardless of the constitutionally protected conduct. Tanner v. McCall, 625 F.2d at 1190. Therefore, affirmance of the jury's verdict is warranted. 22 Nevertheless, the Sheriff insists that his deputies are not entitled to the usual degree of protection from the changing tides of political fortune. Sheriff Thomas maintains that his deputies are confidential, policymaking employees within the exceptional class of public servants of whom political allegiance may be demanded. See Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. at 364-68, 96 S.Ct. at 2685-87; Stegmaier v. Trammell, 597 F.2d 1027 (5th Cir. 1979). 23 The Supreme Court recently refined the process of identifying those employees to whom the policymaker classification should be applied. Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507, 100 S.Ct. 1287, 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980). In dismissing the labels confidential and policymaker as irrelevant, the Court declared, the question is whether the hiring authority can demonstrate that party affiliation is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved. 445 U.S. at 518, 100 S.Ct. at 1295. The terms confidential and policymaker illuminate the contours of the employee class that may permissibly be subjected to a political litmus test, but any specific application of the exception must turn on the importance of political loyalty to the execution of the employee's duties. 24 The job duties of the plaintiff class range from clerical work to law enforcement. They are precisely the same duties performed by the plaintiffs in Elrod v. Burns, where the confidential and policymaking exception was deemed not to apply. Sheriff Thomas offers no satisfying justification for demanding greater political loyalty from his deputies than Sheriff Elrod was entitled to expect from his employees. In a sheriff's department with more than 700 employees, including approximately 550 deputies, the absence of political cohesion between sheriff and deputy can hardly be said to undermine an intimate working relationship. The rule of Elrod v. Burns, not the exception, applies here.