Opinion ID: 213949
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Parade Ordinance, The Mutual Aid Agreement, and the Security Plan

Text: A municipality may only be held liable under § 1983 when one of its policies causes a constitutional injury. Monell v. Dep't of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). A court's first inquiry in assessing municipal liability is whether there is a direct causal link between a municipal policy and the alleged constitutional injury. City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 385, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989). It is not sufficient for a government body's policy to be tangentially related to a constitutional deprivation. Cuesta v. Sch. Bd. of Miami-Dade Co., 285 F.3d 962, 967 (11th Cir.2002). The policy must be the moving force behind the constitutional injury. Id. (quoting Gilmere v. City of Atlanta, 737 F.2d 894, 901 (11th Cir. 1984)). When a municipal policy itself violates federal law, or directs a municipality to do so, resolving issues of fault and causation is straightforward. Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 404, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997). But when that is not the case, determining causation is more difficult. Id. at 406, 117 S.Ct. 1382. If a facially-lawful municipal action is alleged to have caused a municipal employee to violate a plaintiff's constitutional rights, the plaintiff must establish that the municipal action was taken with `deliberate indifference' as to its known or obvious consequences. Id. at 407, 117 S.Ct. 1382 (quoting City of Canton, 489 U.S. at 388, 109 S.Ct. 1197). As none of the policies in question here are facially unconstitutional, this presents the plaintiffs with a difficult task. Shortly before the FTAA summit, the Miami City Commission adopted an ordinance that restricted what materials could be carried during protests and parades. The City also contacted other law-enforcement agencies in South Florida and entered into mutual aid agreements with many of them to secure those organizations' assistance during the FTAA summit. The agreements also required that participating law-enforcement agencies abide by uniform rules of engagement during the FTAA summit. In Counts 1, 6, and 11, the plaintiffs contend that these municipal policies, along with unwritten components of the MPD's security plan, directly caused their First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights to be violated. In Count 3 and 8, the plaintiffs allege that Timoney, as an official policy maker for the City, adopted the Mutual Aid Agreement and Security Plan, and then ordered the acts that deprived the plaintiffs of their First and Fourth Amendment rights. The district court concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to proffer any evidence that either those policies adopted by the City or those implemented by Timoney caused the plaintiffs' constitutional injuries. AFL-CIO v. City of Miami, 650 F.Supp.2d 1258, 1268-69, 1271-72 (S.D.Fla.2009). The plaintiffs contend that the district court erred by viewing each policy in isolation, whereas, had the district court viewed the policies together it would have been clear that a genuine issue of material fact existed about whether the policies caused their constitutional injuries. The defendants respond that the plaintiffs have failed to bring forward any evidence establishing that that the City's municipal policies caused their constitutional injuries. Regarding the counts against the City of Miami, we conclude that whether the municipal policies are viewed separately or together, the plaintiffs have failed to adduce any evidence that those policies caused their constitutional injuries and thus summary judgment was appropriate. First, we note that none of the policies are facially unconstitutional. Accordingly, to prevail on their claims, the plaintiffs would have to prove that City of Miami was deliberately indifferent to the known or obvious consequences of its policies. See Brown, 520 U.S. at 407, 117 S.Ct. 1382; see also James v. Harris Cnty., 577 F.3d 612, 617 (5th Cir.2009); Oviatt v. Pearce, 954 F.2d 1470, 1477-78 (9th Cir.1992). The plaintiffs have failed to proffer any evidence that the City of Miami knew its policies would result in constitutional violations. Nor have they brought forward evidence that it was obvious such violations would occur. What evidence there is suggests that the City was sensitive to the protestors' constitutional rights. For example, the City Commissioners patterned the parade ordinance after one that had sustained a constitutional challenge. The City also amended the parade ordinance to accommodate some protestorsa group of artists and puppeteerswho feared that they could be prosecuted for violating the ordinance. The plaintiffs have also failed to provide any evidence suggesting that there were unwritten policies in the City's security plan to quell dissenting views. Finally, while it is true that the FTAA training slide show classifies protestors according to their ideology and perceived potential for violence, the plaintiffs have failed to adduce any evidence that the slide show was generated by an official policy maker, which means they have not adduced any evidence that the slide show represented a municipal policy. Accordingly, the slide show cannot be the basis for municipal liability. Cooper v. Dillon, 403 F.3d 1208, 1221 (11th Cir.2005). We also conclude that the summary judgment was appropriate for Counts 3 and 8. All of the policies adopted by Timoney were facially lawful. And the plaintiffs have failed to produce any evidence that Timoney adopted those policies with deliberate indifference to the fact they were certain to cause constitutional rights to be violated. Brown, 520 U.S. at 407, 117 S.Ct. 1382.