Opinion ID: 789575
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Plaintiff's substantive due process claim

Text: 57 For a substantive due process claim to survive a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal motion, it must allege governmental conduct that is so egregious, so outrageous, that it may fairly be said to shock the contemporary conscience. County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 847 n. 8, 118 S.Ct. 1708, 140 L.Ed.2d 1043 (1998); see also Poe v. Leonard, 282 F.3d 123, 139 (2d Cir.2002) (applying Sacramento ). We tend to speak of that which shocks the conscience largely in the context of excessive force claims, see, e.g., Hemphill v. Schott, 141 F.3d 412, 419 (2d Cir.1998). But it can apply to other areas of government activity as well, see, e.g., Natale v. Town of Ridgefield, 170 F.3d 258, 262-63 (2d Cir.1999) (discussing the shock the conscience test in an administrative action case). `The measure of what is conscience-shocking is no calibrated yard stick.' Johnson v. Newburgh Enlarged Sch. Dist., 239 F.3d 246, 252 (2d Cir.2001) (quoting Sacramento, 523 U.S. at 847, 118 S.Ct. 1708). Nevertheless, malicious and sadistic abuses of power by government officials, intended to oppress or to cause injury and designed for no legitimate government purpose, unquestionably shock the conscience. Id. This is so because our constitutional notion of due process rests on the bedrock principle that we must protect the individual against ... the exercise of power without any reasonable justification in the service of a legitimate governmental objective. Sacramento, 523 U.S. at 845-46, 118 S.Ct. 1708 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). 58 Here, the pleadings allege that the board member defendants, together with the Chancellor and the investigators, intentionally and maliciously fabricated and disseminated falsehoods in a common effort to deprive the plaintiff of her job — and of her opportunity to represent her constituents. It is further asserted that they did this for no reason other than to oppress her and to cause her injury, and that their project had no legitimate purpose. If these purported facts are proven, the defendants' conduct might well be sufficiently arbitrary and outrageous, in a constitutional sense, to make out a valid substantive due process claim. See Natale, 170 F.3d at 262. 59 But the context that is relied upon to make the alleged actions by the defendants potentially shocking enough to sound in substantive due process, also entails, under our cases, that no such cause of action can survive defendant's motion to dismiss. What is allegedly shocking about what the defendants' did is either their intent to violate plaintiff's fundamental First Amendment rights, or their motive to deprive her of liberty without procedural due process. In other words, what would serve to raise defendant's actions beyond the wrongful to the unconscionable and shocking are facts which, if proven, would constitute, in themselves, specific constitutional violations. And we have held that where a specific constitutional provision prohibits government action, plaintiffs seeking redress for that prohibited conduct in a § 1983 suit cannot make reference to the broad notion of substantive due process. See, e.g., Kia P. v. McIntyre, 235 F.3d 749, 757-58 (2d Cir.2000) (`[W]here another provision of the Constitution provides an explicit textual source of constitutional protection, a court must assess a plaintiff's claims under that explicit provision and not the more generalized notion of substantive due process.') (quoting Conn v. Gabbert, 526 U.S. 286, 293, 119 S.Ct. 1292, 143 L.Ed.2d 399 (1999) (internal quotes and citation omitted)). Because we believe that, as a matter of law, defendants' purported actions would not — but for the allegations of First Amendment violations, or (now abandoned 18 ) Equal Protection Clause violations — be sufficiently shocking to state substantive due process claims, we conclude that plaintiff's substantive due process claim is either subsumed in her more particularized allegations, or must fail. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's dismissal of Velez's substantive due process claim against all the defendants.