Opinion ID: 2979490
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Township’s Section 1983 Liability.

Text: “[A] local government may not be sued under § 1983 for an injury inflicted solely by its employees or agents. Instead, it is when execution of a government’s policy or custom . . . inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under § 1983.” Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 694 (1978); see Paige v. Coyner, 614 F.3d 273, 283-84 (6th Cir. 2010). A municipality may be liable under section 1983 for decisions made by municipal policymakers in appropriate circumstances. Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 480 (1986). However, municipal liability only attaches “where the decisionmaker possesses final authority to establish municipal policy with respect to the action ordered.” Id. at 481. Neither party challenges the district court’s conclusion that the Township may be held liable for policies enacted by the Board if those policies violated Perkins’ rights under the First Amendment. The Township’s legislative authority is vested in the Board. Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 42.5 (West 2010). Therefore, because the Board possessed final authority to establish the policies No. 09-2425 Perkins v. Township of Clayton, et al. Page 6 that Perkins is challenging, the Township may be held liable if those policies did infringe Perkins’ First Amendment rights. In her appellate brief Perkins asserts seventeen different ways that she has been harmed by the Township’s actions after she spoke to the press. However, assuming for the moment that these harms were retaliatory, the Township may only be held liable for retaliation occurring as a result of policies enacted by the Board. The district court correctly held that the only policies that could possibly implicate the Township in this case are the Board’s actions (1) relating to the censure hearing; (2) passing resolutions to pursue the mandamus action; and (3) passing resolutions to pursue the contempt motion. As the district court concluded, the other actions complained of do not create municipal liability because they were the result of policies enacted well before Perkins spoke to the press and were therefore, at most, misused by Shumaker and other Board members. However, such misuse cannot be imputed to the municipality. See, e.g., Radvansky v. City of Olmstead Falls, 395 F.3d 291, 311 (6th Cir. 2005).