Opinion ID: 511547
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Relevance to Employee Speech Cases

Text: 54 The Elrod-Branti line is premised upon concerns similar to those animating the employee speech cases. The Elrod plurality, 427 U.S. at 359, 96 S.Ct. at 2682, relied upon Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972), a Pickering case. As a general rule, the government cannot condition employment on the compromise or relinquishment of a constitutional right, be it freedom of belief and association (Elrod ), or freedom of speech (Pickering ). 55 Both Elrod-Branti and Pickering limit this principle by recognizing that government has a legitimate interest in efficient operations. The exception for patronage dismissals of certain employees reflects the importance of allowing officials at the top of the organizational hierarchy to implement their policies through politically compatible deputies. 56 In order for the new administration to be given an opportunity to fulfill expectations, it must have available and also appear to have available significant facilitators of policy, people who have the personal and partisan loyalty, initiative, and enthusiasm that can make the difference between the acclaimed success of a government agency or program and its failure or, more typically, its lackluster performance. 57 Jimenez Fuentes, 807 F.2d at 241; see also Elrod, 427 U.S. at 367, 96 S.Ct. at 2686; Grossart, 758 F.2d at 1226 (Elected officials must be able to rely on the political loyalty of a policymaking civil servant in order to seize the reigns [sic] of government and realize their electoral mandate.). 58 The same concern for the success of a government program is reflected in the government interest prong of the Pickering test, which focuses on the effective functioning of the public employer's enterprise. Rankin, 107 S.Ct. at 2899. Both Elrod and Pickering balance this government interest against the employee's interest in the exercise of constitutional rights. 59 Given the similarity in the bases and countervailing interests recognized in Pickering and Elrod-Branti, the government interest recognized in the affiliation cases is also relevant in the employee speech cases. As the Fifth Circuit noted, 60 reasoning that permits the President to terminate a Deputy Secretary of Defense because he is a member of the opposition party but prohibits him from firing the Deputy for a public expression of policy contrary to his own suffers for lack of defining principle.... Government has an interest in conceding to elected officials the power to implement policy for which they must answer to the voters. In more familiar language, knowing that the buck stops, and where, is a substantial government interest. 61 Gonzalez v. Benavides, 712 F.2d 142, 148 (5th Cir.1983) (Gonzalez I ), after remand, 774 F.2d 1295 (5th Cir.1985) (Gonzalez II ), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1140, 106 S.Ct. 1789, 90 L.Ed.2d 335 (1986). Stated differently, 62 [t]here is a governmental interest in securing those unique relationships between certain high level executives and the elected officials at whose grace they serve. For this narrow band of relationships, refusing to grant First Amendment found tenure would seem to take away little freedom not already lost in accepting the appointment itself.... 63 Gonzalez I, 712 F.2d at 148. 64 The reason is self-evident. High-level officials must be permitted to accomplish their organizational objectives through key deputies who are loyal, cooperative, willing to carry out their superiors' policies, and perceived by the public as sharing their superiors' aims; this is true whether or not those officials are elected. In the case of key patronage appointments, this government interest is protected because of the presumption that these individuals are compatible with the elected officials they serve. As they belong to the same party, they may be presumed to share common interests and goals, which cannot be said of members of an opposition party. But regardless of whether a key policy level deputy is appointed from among the ranks of party members, the need for compatibility remains. 65 The affiliation cases arise in a discrete context--the unique role of parties in elective politics, the hurlyburly of elections and their aftermath--and the vocabulary of these cases reflects this context. Although the interests recognized in these cases provide a helpful insight into the employee speech cases, the nomenclature is more confusing than illuminating when transferred. Thus, while we adopt the criteria set forth in Jimenez Fuentes as a means of identifying those high-level employees for whom compatibility with superiors is crucial, we modify its terminology by substituting policy for partisan and political. We will ask first whether the employee's position relates to an area as to which there is room for principled disagreement on goals or their implementation. See Nekolny, 653 F.2d at 1170. In other words, is it a policy area? If so, we then ask whether the office gives the employee broad responsibilities with respect to policy formulation, implementation, or enunciation. Put differently, was the individual a policy level employee? If both criteria are met, we ask whether the government interest in accomplishing its organizational objectives through compatible policy level deputies is implicated by the employee's speech. See Gonzalez II, 774 F.2d at 1302. At a minimum, the employee's speech must relate to policy areas for which he is responsible. 66