Opinion ID: 659889
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Elrod-Branti Analysis

Text: 26 The Supreme Court has also devised a special analytical scheme for cases where a public employee has suffered adverse employment action solely because of affiliation with a certain political party. In Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976), the Court considered the permissibility of conditioning the retention of public employment on an employee's support of the employer's political party. The Court held that political patronage firings burden public employees' First Amendment rights to freedom of belief and association, and that such firings must survive exacting scrutiny; in other words, there must be no less restrictive way to achieve a vital government end. Elrod, 427 U.S. at 359, 363, 96 S.Ct. at 2683, 2685 (plurality opinion). The Court held that governments have a vital interest in ensuring that representative government not be undercut by tactics obstructing the implementation of policies of the new administration, 427 U.S. at 367, 96 S.Ct. at 2687 (plurality opinion), but that as a matter of law only the firings of employees in policymaking positions serve this interest sufficiently closely. Id. at 372, 96 S.Ct. at 2689. In Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507, 100 S.Ct. 1287, 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980), the Court clarified the analysis for determining the constitutionality of political patronage dismissals, holding that such dismissals are justifiable only when the hiring authority can demonstrate that party affiliation is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved. Branti, 445 U.S. at 518, 100 S.Ct. at 1295. 6 Thus, in contrast to Pickering with its case-by-case balancing test, Elrod and Branti create a categorical approach 7 for determining the constitutional justifiability of adverse employment actions taken for political patronage reasons: look to whether party affiliation is important to effective performance of the job at issue. 8 c. Strict Scrutiny Analysis 27 Generally speaking, when a government action or regulation burdens fundamental constitutional rights, the action or regulation is subjected to strict scrutiny and is therefore deemed to infringe those rights unless shown to be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest. See, e.g., Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652, 666, 110 S.Ct. 1391, 1401, 108 L.Ed.2d 652 (1990); Illinois State Bd. of Elections v. Socialist Workers Party, 440 U.S. 173, 184, 99 S.Ct. 983, 990, 59 L.Ed.2d 230 (1979). As discussed, the right to marriage, like other intimate association rights, has been deemed fundamental. See supra Section IV.D.1. Therefore, burdens on the right to marry, like burdens on other intimate association rights, are generally subjected to strict scrutiny. See Zablocki, 434 U.S. at 382, 98 S.Ct. at 679 (significant burden on right to marry subjected to critical examination) (citations omitted); Hatcher, 809 F.2d at 1558 (state actions curtailing freedom of association subject to closest scrutiny) (quoting NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 460-61, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 1171, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958)). 28 As the public employee expression and political patronage cases demonstrate, the Court has sometimes devised special analyses for cases involving burdens on public employees' constitutional rights. Nonetheless, in some situations courts have applied the generally applicable strict scrutiny test, rather than one of the special public employee analyses, to employee claims that public employer actions have infringed their fundamental constitutional rights. For example, in Clark v. Library of Congress, 750 F.2d 89 (D.C.Cir.1984), a Library of Congress book reshelver challenged his employer's subjecting him to an intensive FBI investigation on account of his affiliation with a political group, the Young Socialist Alliance. After determining that this action burdened the plaintiff's fundamental expressive association rights to political belief and affiliation, the court concluded that the action could not be justified unless it was necessary to serve a compelling government interest. Clark, 750 F.2d at 94. While the court cited Elrod for the proposition that public employer burdens on employee rights of belief and affiliation are subject to strict scrutiny, it did not apply the Elrod- Branti categorical test for determining whether strict scrutiny was met--i.e. the test that asks whether a particular political affiliation or lack thereof is an appropriate requirement for effective performance of the public office involved. 29 As did the Clark court in analyzing a burden on the expressive association right, some courts have suggested that the generally applicable strict scrutiny test should be applied in determining justification for burdens on public employees' intimate association rights. See, e.g., Dike v. School Bd., 650 F.2d 783, 787 (5th Cir. Unit B July 1981) (suggesting that public school board refusal to allow teacher to breastfeed her child during lunch hour could be justified only by showing school policy was closely tailored to sufficiently important state interests, and citing cases holding that burdens on fundamental rights are subject to strict scrutiny); Thorne v. City of El Segundo, 726 F.2d 459, 469-70 (9th Cir.1983) (holding that police department inquiry burdening employment applicant's privacy and free association rights must be evaluated under heightened scrutiny and thus be narrowly tailored to police department's legitimate interests), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 979, 105 S.Ct. 380, 83 L.Ed.2d 315 (1984); Whisenhunt v. Spradlin, 464 U.S. 965, 971-72, 104 S.Ct. 404, 409, 78 L.Ed.2d 345 (1983) (Brennan, Marshall, and Blackmun, JJ., dissenting from denial of certiorari) (suggesting that adverse employment action on account of police officers' off-duty sexual conduct burdened fundamental constitutional rights and could be justified only if necessary to achieve strong, clearly articulated state interests.). 9 d. Determining Proper Analysis for Evaluating Whether Adverse Employment Action Infringes Public Employee's Intimate Association Right To Be Married 30 As mentioned above, the Supreme Court has never specifically explained what legal analysis governs the issue of whether an adverse employment action infringes a public employee's right to be married; thus, it is not entirely clear which analysis--general strict scrutiny, Pickering, or Elrod- Branti--governs this case. We might follow those courts that have applied general strict scrutiny analysis to cases involving public employees' political affiliation and intimate association rights. On the other hand, to the extent it seems appropriate to apply strict scrutiny to McCabe's intimate association claim, it might also seem fitting to look to Elrod and Branti, themselves strict scrutiny cases, for guidance in applying strict scrutiny to a case involving a public employee's exercise of association rights. Elrod and Branti 's concern that employees exercising their constitutional rights not hinder the effective performance of the public office involved, see Branti, 445 U.S. at 518, 100 S.Ct. at 1295, would seem as applicable when employees exercise intimate association rights as when they exercise the political affiliation rights at stake in Elrod and Branti. Furthermore, to the extent that Pickering and Elrod- Branti are seen as more deferential to the public employer than general strict scrutiny, it would seem odd to defer when fundamental speech or political affiliation rights are involved but not when intimate association rights are at stake. 31 Even if we rule out general strict scrutiny and assume that either the Pickering or the Elrod- Branti analysis applies, it is not clear which analysis is better suited to a situation involving intimate association. Appellees strongly urge that we apply the Elrod- Branti analysis to this case. They point out that Elrod and Branti explicitly address the right to freedom of association, whereas the Pickering analysis was developed in the free speech context. They concede that Elrod and Branti address the expressive association right rather than the intimate association right, but argue that Elrod and Branti stand for a general principle applicable regardless of the nature of the association right at stake: that where a public employee occupies a position of confidence to a policymaker and concerns over divided loyalties exist, the policymaker may remove the employee from that position without violating the employee's [constitutional] rights. Appellees' Brief at 8-11. 32 We agree with appellees that there is some justification for applying the Elrod- Branti rather than the Pickering analysis in this case. Elrod and Branti focus on a public employee's right to harbor certain political beliefs and on how exercising that right affects the performance of governmental functions by affecting employee loyalty. See Terry v. Cook, 866 F.2d 373, 376-77 (11th Cir.1989) (suggesting Elrod- Branti concern is how employee political beliefs affect loyalty and thereby job performance); Singer, Comment, Conduct and Belief, at 917-18 (suggesting that political patronage cases focus on belief and its effect on loyalty). In other words, Elrod and Branti focus on belief, not on conduct. Pickering, on the other hand, focuses on the disruptive potential of expressive conduct rather than on the disruptive potential of belief. See Stough v. Gallagher, 967 F.2d 1523, 1527 (11th Cir.1992) (suggesting that Pickering focuses on problem of overt expressive conduct by public employees); Terry, 866 F.2d at 376-77 (Pickering and its progeny focus on expressive conduct, not on mindset of possessing allegiance to employer); Singer, Comment, Conduct and Belief, at 917-18 (Pickering concern is expressive conduct and its effect on workplace efficiency, not political belief and its effect on government functioning). 33 In this case, appellees do not argue that McCabe has engaged in overt expressive conduct that has disrupted the workplace; rather, their concern is that her marital status will inhibit the proper functioning of the chief's office by compromising her loyalty to the police chief. To the extent that the status of being married is more closely analogous to belief than to conduct, the Elrod- Branti analysis and its focus on belief may be better tailored to this case than the Pickering analysis. Indeed, the facts of this case are strikingly similar to those of several cases where courts have applied the Elrod- Branti analysis. For example, in Soderstrum v. Town of Grand Isle, 925 F.2d 135 (5th Cir.1991), the Fifth Circuit applied the Elrod- Branti analysis to evaluate the plaintiff's claim that she was fired from her job as secretary to the chief of police in violation of her freedom of association rights. After the plaintiff's employer lost his bid for reelection, the new police chief fired the plaintiff because her ties to the old police chief made him doubt her loyalty. See also Faughender v. City of North Olmsted, 927 F.2d 909 (6th Cir.1991) (applying Elrod- Branti analysis to claim by former secretary to mayor that newly elected mayor fired her because of her support for old mayor); Soderbeck v. Burnett County, 752 F.2d 285 (7th Cir.) (applying Elrod- Branti to case where sheriff's office employee was fired by new sheriff after old sheriff, the employee's husband, lost his election race against new sheriff), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1117, 105 S.Ct. 2360, 86 L.Ed.2d 261 (1985). Although the association at issue in the latter cases is expressive and not intimate as in this case, in each of the latter cases, as in this case, the employee's interest lies simply in being who she is--whether by being loyal to a certain political party or by being married to a certain person--rather than in engaging in expressive conduct. Similarly, as in the latter cases, the appellees' concern here is that the employee's being who she is will adversely affect her loyalty and thereby hinder the functioning of the office. Since the employer and employee interests in this case are so similar to those in cases where courts have applied the Elrod- Branti analysis, it might make sense for us to apply that test here as well. 34 While applying the Elrod- Branti analysis may seem appropriate, there is also some justification for applying the Pickering balance in this case. First of all, the rationale of Pickering and its progeny--that the state as employer has a special interest in regulating its employees' behavior in order to avoid the disruption of public functions--would seem to apply when employees exercise intimate association rights as well as when they exercise speech rights. A confidential secretary's marriage to the boss's subordinate could potentially disrupt workplace functioning as much as an instance of expressive conduct could. Second, our research has disclosed no case extending the Elrod- Branti analysis outside the narrow context of political patronage. 10 In contrast, courts have often extended the Pickering analysis outside the speech context from which it arose. Of course, we routinely apply the Pickering analysis in cases where public employees claim to have suffered adverse employment action in retaliation for exercising the right to free speech. See, e.g., Goffer v. Marbury, 956 F.2d 1045, 1049 (11th Cir.1992); Williams v. Roberts, 904 F.2d 634, 637 (11th Cir.1990); Bryson v. City of Waycross, 888 F.2d 1562, 1565-67 (11th Cir.1989). However, we have also applied the Pickering balance in cases where public employees claim to have been fired or demoted in retaliation for exercising their rights of expressive association, see Hatcher v. Board of Public Education, 809 F.2d 1546, 1559 (11th Cir.1987); Schneider v. Indian River Community College Foundation, Inc., 875 F.2d 1537, 1542-44 (11th Cir.1989); cf. Boddie v. City of Columbus, 989 F.2d 745, 748 (5th Cir.1993), unless the employees claim to have suffered adverse employment action solely because they do not share the employer's political affiliation, in which case we apply the Elrod- Branti analysis. See Terry, 866 F.2d at 376-77 (Elrod- Branti analysis applies when employee suffers adverse employment action because of political allegiance, but Pickering analysis applies when employee suffers adverse employment action because of expressive conduct). Furthermore, the Supreme Court has at least suggested that Pickering applies not only to speech and expressive association cases, but also to cases where public employees claim that employment decisions burden their liberty rights, as McCabe claims here. See Kelley v. Johnson, 425 U.S. 238, 245-49, 96 S.Ct. 1440, 1444-46, 47 L.Ed.2d 708 (1976) (citing Pickering and apparently applying analysis to employment rule burdening police officers' liberty right to choose manner of personal grooming). Various other courts have made a similar suggestion. See, e.g., Fyfe v. Curlee, 902 F.2d 401, 405 (5th Cir.) (applying Pickering to adverse job transfer burdening public school teacher's liberty right to control child's education), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 940, 111 S.Ct. 346, 112 L.Ed.2d 310 (1990); Kukla v. Village of Antioch, 647 F.Supp. 799, 805 (N.D.Ill.1986) (applying Pickering balance to firings burdening male police sergeant's liberty right to live with female dispatcher without benefit of marriage); Briggs v. North Muskegon Police Dep't, 563 F.Supp. 585, 587 (W.D.Mich.1983) (applying Pickering to firing burdening police officer's association and privacy right to cohabit with a woman other than his wife), aff'd, 746 F.2d 1475 (6th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 473 U.S. 909, 105 S.Ct. 3535, 87 L.Ed.2d 659 (1985). Consistently with Kelley and the other cases applying Pickering in situations involving liberty rights, 11 we have stated in the past that the Pickering analysis applies to claims based on the liberty-grounded intimate association right. See Wilson v. Taylor, 658 F.2d 1021 (5th Cir. Unit B Oct. 1981) (Wilson I ), 12 appeal after remand 733 F.2d 1539 (11th Cir.1984) (Wilson II ). 13 35 E. Appropriateness of Granting Summary Judgment to Appellees 36 As mentioned above, appellees do not contest the district court's conclusion that McCabe's right to be married is a constitutionally protected freedom of association right. Nor do they contest on appeal either the district court's determination that McCabe has suffered adverse employment action or its finding that McCabe would not have been transferred were she not married to Joel McCabe. Therefore, the only issue we need address is whether the district court properly found that McCabe's transfer, although burdening her constitutional right to be married, was nonetheless justified. 37 Although there are good reasons to apply either the Pickering or the Elrod- Branti analysis to this case, we need not decide which of the three schemes described above applies, because appellees' transferring McCabe was justified under any of the legal standards discussed here. 14 Therefore, regardless of which justification standard applies, the district court properly granted summary judgment to appellees and denied summary judgment to McCabe. 38 Assuming arguendo that the district court properly determined the Pickering analysis to apply, we agree with the district court that the Pickering balance tips in favor of appellees. 15 As mentioned above, that balance requires determining whether the public employee's interest in exercising a constitutional right outweighs the employer's interest in efficiency and the effective functioning of the office. Pickering, 391 U.S. at 568, 88 S.Ct. at 1734-35; Rankin, 483 U.S. at 388, 107 S.Ct. at 2899. The Supreme Court has identified a number of factors for courts to consider when performing the balance: (1) whether the employee's exercising rights impairs discipline by superiors or harmony among co-workers; (2) whether the employee's exercising rights has a detrimental impact on close working relationships for which personal loyalty and confidence are necessary; and (3) whether the employee's exercising rights impedes the performance of the [employee's] duties or interferes with the regular operation of the enterprise. Rankin, 483 U.S. at 388, 107 S.Ct. at 2899 (citation omitted). 16 The principle underlying the focus on these factors seems to be that the employer's interest will weigh more heavily in the Pickering balance the more closely the challenged employment action serves the employer's interest in the efficient and effective functioning of the office. See Kukla, 647 F.Supp. at 805 (The public employer-employee cases ... turn on the extent to which the restriction of the employee's rights relates to the demands of the government agency's work. The scales ultimately tip on whether the restriction is sufficiently related to the agency's work to outweigh the protection given to the right.); Developments in the Law--Public Employment, 97 Harv.L.Rev. 1611, 1748 n. 47 (noting Professor Gerald Frug's assertion that the linchpin of Court decisions concerning the constitutional rights of public employees is [the] relevance of challenged restrictions of constitutional rights to preservation of governmental efficiency) (emphasis in original). The more a public employee's transfer or discharge is necessary to the effective functioning of the office, the more the transfer or discharge becomes justifiable, and thus the more likely it is that a court will find the transfer or discharge constitutionally permissible by finding the employer's interest to outweigh the employee's interest in the Pickering balance. See, e.g., Morales v. Stierheim, 848 F.2d 1145, 1151 (11th Cir.1988), cert. denied sub nom. Leon v. Avino, 489 U.S. 1013, 109 S.Ct. 1124, 103 L.Ed.2d 187 (1989); McMullen v. Carson, 754 F.2d 936, 939-40 (11th Cir.1985); cf. Rankin, 483 U.S. at 388-92, 107 S.Ct. at 2899-2901. Where loyalty to an employer and the ability to keep confidences are essential to the proper performance of public functions, the public employer's interest will weigh heavily if the employee's exercise of the right would compromise loyalty and confidentiality, because restricting those rights may be necessary to preserve the employer's interest in effective office functioning. See Pickering, 391 U.S. at 570, 88 S.Ct. at 1735; Rankin, 483 U.S. at 388, 107 S.Ct. at 2899; see also McDaniel v. Woodard, 886 F.2d 311, 315 (11th Cir.1989). For this reason, [w]hen close working relationships are essential to fulfilling public responsibilities, the Court has accorded a wide degree of deference to the employer's judgment. Connick, 461 U.S. at 151-52, 103 S.Ct. at 1692; Goffer, 956 F.2d at 1049. There is no genuine issue that loyalty and the ability to keep confidences are essential to the proper performance of McCabe's former job. McCabe conceded at oral argument that the position of secretary to the chief of police requires keeping confidences. Furthermore, both appellees and McCabe have produced substantial evidence that loyalty and keeping confidences are required for proper performance of the job from which McCabe was transferred. First, there is no dispute that Chief Sharrett's duties involve confidential matters. In an affidavit, Chief Sharrett swore that his duties include both hiring, disciplining, and discharging all Plantation police officers and supervision of the Internal Affairs Unit (Internal Affairs), the section that investigates alleged misconduct by Plantation police officers. See R1-23-2 (Affidavit of Plantation Police Chief C.E. Sharrett, Jr.). McCabe has produced no evidence contradicting these assertions. 39 Second, there is no dispute that McCabe's duties required that she have access to some confidential materials. Chief Sharrett swore that fulfillment of many of his duties often requires making communications that are not to be discussed outside his office. See id. at 2-3. He also attested that, in order for him to perform his duties efficiently and effectively, his secretary must have access to much of the same confidential information to which he has access, and that his secretary prepares his correspondence, much of which is confidential and not to be discussed outside his office. Id. at 3. McCabe has produced no evidence to contradict these assertions. In fact, the only evidence she has produced for the purpose of rebutting appellees' contention that her position involves access to confidential information, a copy of the City of Plantation's official job description for the position of secretary, actually tends to demonstrate that her position does involve keeping confidences, for it states that a secretary's work often involves some degree of confidentiality. R1-15, Exhibit (Plantation Job Description for Position of Secretary). 40 Other evidence McCabe has produced tends to confirm that her job duties required her to have access to confidential information. She testified at her deposition that she performed Chief Sharrett's typing and filing and that she answered both his public and his private phone lines. See R1-51-11-12 (Deposition of Ellen McCabe). Since Chief Sharrett supervised such confidential matters as employee discipline and discharges, it seems clear that in the course of performing her secretarial duties McCabe would come into contact with sensitive information. In fact, McCabe admitted that she handled some materials regarding sensitive Internal Affairs investigations into officer misconduct; at her deposition she testified that one of her duties was typing the opinions of Internal Affairs investigators regarding the discipline they recommended for particular officers. Id. at 27. Her contact with Internal Affairs opinions occurred while the investigations were still ongoing, for after receiving the opinions typed by McCabe, the chief had the ultimate duty to decide what form of disciplinary action would be taken. Id. at 28. McCabe also testified that in the course of answering the chief's telephone, she handled public complaints regarding officers, which were sometimes referred to Internal Affairs. Id. at 35-37. 41 Finally, there is no dispute that the police chief's office cannot function effectively unless the police chief's secretary is loyal to him and able to maintain the confidentiality of the office. Chief Sharrett swore that [i]t is absolutely essential to the efficient and effective performance and functioning of the office of the Chief of Police that [his] Executive Secretary maintain the absolute confidence of the office and that [he] have complete faith, trust and confidence in [his] Executive Secretary. R1-23-2-4 (Affidavit of Plantation Police Chief C.E. Sharrett, Jr.). McCabe produced no evidence that controverted this assertion. Moreover, that McCabe was privy to information regarding Internal Affairs investigations and regarding the discharge of officers makes clear that any inability on her part to keep matters confidential would seriously compromise the effective functioning of the chief's office. For example, clearly it could irreparably undermine a misconduct investigation if information regarding the investigation were leaked to the department's rank and file through McCabe and her husband. Thus, it is clear that loyalty and the ability to keep confidences are required for proper performance of McCabe's former job. Even without the substantial evidence that McCabe's former position requires loyalty and confidentiality, it is a matter of common experience that loyalty and the ability to keep confidences are essential qualities in a personal secretary to a policymaker such as a police chief. See Soderstrum, 925 F.2d at 141 (referring to realistic understanding of the confidential relationship between secretaries and their bosses); cf. McDaniel, 886 F.2d at 316-17 (reasonable to believe loyalty and confidentiality necessary qualities in judge's confidential secretary); Faughender, 927 F.2d at 914 (a mayor's secretary is clearly the type of position that involves access to confidential and political material, and political loyalty, whether partisan or personal, is an essential attribute of the job.). 42 The only remaining question is whether McCabe's exercise of her intimate association right to be married to Joel McCabe threatened her loyalty to Chief Sharrett and her ability to maintain the confidentiality of the office so much that appellees' interest in the effective functioning of the office outweighs McCabe's interest in exercising her intimate association right. No one disputes that Chief Sharrett was subjectively concerned that McCabe's marriage to Joel McCabe would affect her loyalty to him and undermine her ability to keep confidences. Chief Sharrett swore in his affidavit that 43 I was personally and professionally concerned and uncomfortable having the wife of an officer under my command functioning as my confidential Executive Secretary. The position of Executive Secretary requires strict trust and confidence, sometimes even possibly to the detriment or adverse interest of Mrs. McCabe's husband, Sgt. Joel McCabe. I felt that such a situation was potentially disruptive of the efficient and effective functioning and performance of the office of the Chief of Police. I did not want to wait until a disruption occurred before taking action. 44 R1-23-4 (Affidavit of Plantation Police Chief C.E. Sharrett, Jr.). McCabe agrees that Chief Sharrett transferred her because of his personal concern that her marriage might breach the confidentiality of his office. See R1-10 Exhibit A at 5 (Affidavit of Ellen McCabe). 45 While it is clear that an employer's purely subjective fear of disruption is insufficient to outweigh an employee's exercise of her rights, see Williams, 904 F.2d at 638, it is also plain that Chief Sharrett's concern that McCabe's marriage would undermine her loyalty to him and thus the confidentiality of his office was reasonable and not merely subjective. It is a matter of common experience that spouses tend to possess a higher degree of loyalty to their marital partners than to their superiors, and often discuss workplace matters with one another, even matters that a superior has designated as confidential. Thus, as a matter of common experience it is objectively reasonable for a police chief to be concerned about confidentiality when his confidential secretary is married to a subordinate. 46 In fact, because of the particular nature of McCabe's job and Chief Sharrett's job, we believe that it was not only reasonable but necessary for Chief Sharrett to transfer McCabe in order to preserve the confidentiality of his office. Thus, appellees' interest weighs particularly heavily in the Pickering balance. 17 Evidence produced by both appellees and McCabe demonstrates that if the chief's secretary did breach the confidentiality of the chief's office she would most likely seriously damage the functioning of that office. For example, as we suggested above, it might seriously undermine an Internal Affairs misconduct investigation if information regarding the investigation were leaked outside the police chief's office. 18 A breach of confidentiality may not have occurred before, and the likelihood of such a breach occurring may not have been overwhelming. However, because any breach of confidentiality would likely cause such serious damage to office functioning, it was objectively necessary for Chief Sharrett to take whatever steps he could to ensure that no such breach ever occurred. As discussed above, common experience suggests that a confidential secretary's marriage to a subordinate of her police chief would compromise her loyalty to the chief and her ability to keep confidences. Because McCabe was married to one of Chief Sharrett's subordinates, Joel McCabe, Chief Sharrett had no alternative for ensuring the confidentiality of his office besides transferring McCabe. Because Chief Sharrett's transferring McCabe was necessary to serve his interest in maintaining the effective functioning of his office, we readily conclude that appellees' interests are heavy enough in this situation to outweigh McCabe's interest in her marital association even without any evidence of actual disruption. See Waters, 684 F.2d 833, 839 n. 12 (11th Cir.1982) (Because lives are often at stake, the danger of harm to a police department's discipline is too great to insist on waiting for the harm to result.... Consequently, we conclude that a reasonable likelihood of harm generally is ... enough to support full consideration of the police department's ... interests); McMullen, 754 F.2d at 940 (same) (quoting Waters ). 19 Therefore, appellees' transfer of McCabe did not infringe her intimate association right to be married, and the district court properly granted summary judgment to appellees and denied it to McCabe. 47 Even if appellees correctly assert that the Elrod- Branti analysis rather than the Pickering analysis should apply, the district court properly granted appellees summary judgment. The dispositive question under the Elrod- Branti analysis is whether the employer can demonstrate that forgoing associational rights is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved, Branti, 445 U.S. at 518, 100 S.Ct. at 1295; see supra Section IV.D.3.b.; in other words, the employer must demonstrate that the employee's exercise of associational rights would hinder the effective functioning of the employer's office. We have already determined, in the course of conducting the Pickering analysis, that appellees have demonstrated a reasonable likelihood that McCabe's exercising her intimate association right to be married to Joel McCabe would compromise two qualities necessary to the effective performance of her job--her loyalty to Chief Sharrett and her ability to keep confidences, and that appropriate regard for the police department's legitimate interests thus required McCabe's transfer. Therefore, we readily conclude that appellees have made the required showing under Branti that McCabe's transfer was justified and were entitled to prevail even under the Elrod- Branti analysis. Thus, the district court's grant of summary judgment to appellees was proper regardless of whether Pickering or Elrod- Branti applies. 48 Even if the proper legal standard for determining whether McCabe's transfer was justified is general strict scrutiny analysis, appellees are still entitled to prevail. Strict scrutiny analysis requires the government to demonstrate that its challenged action was necessary to serve a compelling state interest. The government's interest in the efficient and effective performance of government functions is compelling. Elrod, 427 U.S. at 372, 96 S.Ct. at 2689; Sims v. Metropolitan Dade County, 972 F.2d 1230, 1237-38 (11th Cir.1992). As we have explained in the course of performing the Pickering balance, because McCabe's ability to keep confidences was essential to the proper functioning of the police chief's office, and because her marriage to Joel McCabe was likely to undermine her ability to keep confidences, transferring McCabe was necessary to serve the compelling interest of preserving the effective functioning of the Plantation police chief's office. Therefore, Chief Sharrett's transferring McCabe because of her marriage to Joel McCabe was justified and did not violate her intimate association right to be married even under strict scrutiny analysis. Thus, the district court properly granted appellees summary judgment regardless of what legal standard applies on the issue of justification.