Opinion ID: 2551663
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to PromoteDue Process and Equal Protection

Text: Appellants claim to have property and liberty interests in securing a promotion to the position of detention administrator. In Wyoming, there is no property interest in promotion where promotion depends on the discretion of the supervisor. City Council of Laramie v. Kreiling, 911 P.2d 1037, 1047 (Wyo.1996). Where such discretion exists, the employee has only a unilateral expectation of promotion. Wyoming sheriffs have discretionary authority to hire deputies and assistants. Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 18-3-602 (Lexis 1999). Because the board of county commissioners cannot control the sheriff's appointments under his independent office, such appointments create no. Fourteenth Amendment property interest under the personnel policies and practices of the board of county commissioners. Dickeson v. Quarberg, 844 F.2d 1435, 1439 (10th Cir. 1988). To have a property interest in a benefit, a person must enjoy a legitimate claim of entitlement to it. Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2709, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). The district court correctly found that the mere statement of minimum job qualifications is not such a substantive limitation on the sheriff's discretionary authority as to confer on appellants a constitutionally protected property interest in promotion. Appellants also contend that their liberty interests were impaired when they were harassed about their complaints of inadequate working conditions. If the Government imposes on an employee a stigma or disability that forecloses his freedom to take advantage of other employment opportunities, a liberty interest may be implicated. Sipes v. United States, 744 F.2d 1418, 1422 (10th Cir.1984). However, for an employee to make a successful claim of liberty deprivation, he must show that his employer's actions resulted in the publication of information which was false and stigmatizing. Sipes, 744 F.2d at 1421. Appellants have not alleged any publication of false or stigmatizing information. We find this claim devoid of merit. Appellant Matthews also claims that his constitutional right to liberty was impaired without due process because the sheriff somehow interfered with Bernard Matthews' right to associate with his son, Deputy Sheriff John Matthews, by not promoting him. Appellant alleges that the sheriff refused to promote Matthews because the sheriff did not like Matthews' son. However, appellant produced no evidence that he has been precluded from any type of familial association with his son. There is no constitutional right to nepotism in Wyoming. Regardless, appellant has not even alleged that he could spend more time with his son if he were hired as detention administrator. The district court properly granted summary judgment on this claim. Appellants vaguely contend they were somehow denied equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment because the sheriff discriminated against them by hiring a third person. In the absence of any issues involving a suspect class or a fundamental right (which could trigger strict scrutiny analysis), to prevail on this claim, appellants must show that the sheriff treated similarly situated people differently, and that such disparate treatment was not rationally related to a legitimate governmental objective. See Kautza v. City of Cody, 812 P.2d 143, 147 (Wyo.1991); Clements v. Fashing, 457 U.S. 957, 963, 102 S.Ct. 2836, 2843, 73 L.Ed.2d 508 (1982). The sheriff could only hire one detention administrator. He hired the candidate he felt best qualified. We find that this disparate treatment was rationally related to the legitimate governmental objectives of properly running the detention facility (as required by Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 18-3-603 (Lexis 1999)) and preserving the peace in Platte County (as required by Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 18-3-606 (Lexis 1999)).