Opinion ID: 765358
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Existence of the Right

Text: 16 Adler contends that he was fired because of his wife's lawsuit, an action that he contends violates his First Amendment right of intimate association. The nature and extent of that right is hardly clear, however, and it is therefore necessary to consider the appropriate constitutional framework within which to analyze Adler's claim. 17 The Supreme Court has recognized a right of association with two distinct components--an individual's right to associate with others in intimate relationships and a right to associate with others for purposes of engaging in activities traditionally protected by the First Amendment, such as speech and other expressive conduct. See Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 617-18 (1984). 18 The source of the intimate association right has not been authoritatively determined. Language in Roberts suggests that this right is a component of the personal liberty protected by the Due Process Clause. 4 See id. at 618-19. However, in City of Dallas v. Stanglin, 490 U.S. 19 (1989), the Court cited the First Amendment as embrac[ing] a right of association that included the two elements identified in Roberts, intimate association and expressive association. See Stanglin, 490 U.S. at 23-24, 109 S.Ct.1591, 5 . In FW/PBS, Inc. v. Dallas, 493 U.S. 215, 237 (1990), the Court considered a claimed violation of the right to freedom of association recognized in Roberts without indicating whether the right was grounded on the First Amendment or the Due Process Clause. In Lyng v. International Union, UAW, 485 U.S. 360, 364-66 (1988), the Court considered under the First Amendment a claimed denial of both associational (family) and expressive rights. See generally Collin O'Connor Udell, Intimate Association: Resurrecting a Hybrid Right, 7 Tex. J. Women & L. 231 (1998). 19 Complicating the inquiry as to the source of the right of intimate association is the fact that whenever the Supreme Court has considered an impairment of the most fundamental of intimate relationships, marriage, it has not spoken generally of a right of intimate association, but has referred specifically to a right to marry and has grounded that right on the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause, see Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, 414 U.S. 632, 639 (1974) (personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 12 (1967) (These [anti-miscegenation] statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.), or on a right of privacy protected by that Clause, see Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 713 (1976) ([T]he personal rights found in this guarantee of personal privacy must be limited to those which are 'fundamental' . . .. matters relating to marriage ....), or on both liberty and privacy, see Zablocki v. Redhail, 434 U.S. 374, 383-85 (1978) ([T]he Court recognized that the right to marry .... is a central part of the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause .... More recent decisions have established that the right to marry is part of the fundamental 'right of privacy' implicit in the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause.) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). The opinions considering claims that a right to marry was impaired or at least burdened have not referred to the First Amendment. See, e.g., Califano v. Jobst, 434 U.S. 47 (1977); Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749 (1975). 20 Two courts of appeals have explicitly considered under the First Amendment a claim that state action unlawfully burdened a marital relationship. See Singleton v. Cecil, 133 F.3d 631, 635 (8th Cir. 1998) (rejecting claim that discharge of at-will police employee violated his First Amendment right of intimate association where wife plotted to have police chief arrested), aff'd on this point, 176 F.3d 419, 423-24 (8th Cir.1999)(in banc); Adkins v. Board of Education, 982 F.2d 952, 955-56 (6th Cir. 1993) (upholding claim that denial of continued employment because of school superintendent's dislike of employee's husband violated her First Amendment right of intimate association); cf. Shahar v. Bowers, 114 F.3d 1097, 1110 (11th Cir. 1997) (in banc) (rejecting claim that withdrawal of job offer for position of state prosecutor because of her same-sex wedding violated her First Amendment right of intimate association). 21 The courts' varying doctrinal analyses of claims alleging burdens on marital relationships might stem from the fact that some of these claims challenge a broad regulation affecting a class of allegedly burdened spouses and other claims challenge a specific adverse action taken against a particular spouse. Challenges to broad regulatory measures affecting a marriage relationship tend to be considered claims of unlawful classifications and are tested against the Equal Protection Clause, once a court has asserted that the right to marry is a fundamental right protected by the Due Process Clause. See, e.g., Zablocki, 434 U.S. at 383-91 (invalidating statute prohibiting marriage without court approval by members of class under court order to support minor child not in parent's custody); Loving, 388 U.S. at 12 (invalidating statute prohibiting interracial marriage). On the other hand, claims that some adverse state action burdens an individual's marital relationship have been assessed under a First Amendment doctrine of intimate marital association. See, e.g., Singleton, 133 F.3d at 635 (rejecting claim of unlawful discharge from employment); Adkins, 982 F.2d at 955-56 (upholding claim of unlawful denial of employment opportunity). The willingness to consider individual claims under a First Amendment analysis might be due to courts' recognition of such claims as asserting the sort of retaliatory action that is often tested against the First Amendment whenever adverse action is alleged to have been taken for exercise of any of the freedoms protected by the First Amendment. See, e.g., Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 598 (1972) (teacher claiming contract not renewed in retaliation for his exercise of the constitutional right of free speech). 22 Just as the source of a right of intimate association has varied, so has the standard applied in determining whether that right has been violated. Sometimes court opinions suggest that an intimate association right is not violated unless the challenged action has the likely effect of ending the protected relationship, see, e.g., Lyng, 485 U.S. at 364-66 (challenge to provision rendering family of striker ineligible for food stamps rejected because of unlikelihood that it would prevent families from dining together), or unless affecting the relationship was the purpose of the challenged regulation, see, e.g., Jobst, 434 U.S. at 54 (challenge to provision terminating disability benefits to secondary beneficiary upon marriage rejected because it was not an attempt to interfere with the individual's freedom to make a decision as important as marriage) (footnote omitted). In other cases, the opinions consider whether the challenged action alleged to burden an intimate association is arbitrary or an 'undue intrusion' by the state into the marriage relationship. Adkins, 982 F.2d at 956 (quoting Roberts, 468 U.S. at 618). 23 Though the matter is not free from doubt, we think a spouse's claim that adverse action was taken solely against that spouse in retaliation for conduct of the other spouse should be analyzed as a claimed violation of a First Amendment right of intimate association. New York has not purported to regulate Adler's right to decide whom to marry, a regulation that would clearly require assessment under the substantive due process component of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Zablocki, 434 U.S. at 384. Nor has New York endeavored to end a marriage relationship already begun. On the contrary, the New York action challenged here fully accepts the continued existence of Adler's marriage but, according to his claim, seeks to penalize him with loss of his job because of its displeasure with the conduct of his wife. If the First Amendment accords an individual some right to maintain an intimate marital relationship free of undue state interference, Adler's claim properly invokes the protection of that Amendment. His claim is grounded on the most intimate of relationships, marriage, and warrants an appropriately high degree of protection. Cf. FW/PBS, 493 U.S. at 237 (rejecting intimate association claim based on brief motel encounters). 24 We need not decide in this case whether in some circumstances the conduct, or even the identity, of a wife might raise such serious concerns about her husband's suitability for public employment as to justify the husband's discharge (or the discharge of an employee wife because of the identity or conduct of her husband). Cf. Wilson v. Taylor, 733 F.2d 1539 (11th Cir. 1984) (noting but not resolving issue of whether police department could fire police officer for dating daughter of organized crime figure). The law has substantially progressed since the days when Mr. Bumble's solicitor informed him that the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction. 6 . For purposes of this case, we need only rule that the activity of Adler's wife in suing state officials for herself and another plaintiff because of employment discrimination in her department could not reasonably be found to justify his discharge. Wherever the line might be drawn that separates a state's permissible and impermissible actions against an employee based on a spouse's conduct, Adler's discharge because of his wife's lawsuit is well across the line. A relationship as important as marriage cannot be penalized for something as insubstantial as a public employer's discomfort about a discrimination lawsuit brought by an employee's spouse. 25 We recognize that in cases where a public employee is discharged because of the allegedly disruptive effect of his own, normally protected speech, courts are required to seek a balance between the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees. Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 568 (1968). Cf. Shawgo v. Spradlin, 701 F.2d 470, 482-83 (5th Cir. 1983) (upholding authority of police department to discipline male and female officers for dating and alleged cohabitation). Whatever degree of state interest might be required to overcome a public employee's interest in maintaining a First Amendment right of intimate association despite the employer's concern about some action of the employee's spouse, no Pickering-type balance is required in this case for two reasons. 26 First, the defendants maintain that Adler's supervisors were not aware of his wife's lawsuit and that Adler was fired solely for reasons of political patronage. By proceeding in this way, the defendants disavow any suggestion that Adler was dismissed on the basis that his wife's activity disrupted office operations. As framed by the parties, then, this case presents no need to balance the importance of Adler's right of intimate association with his wife against any disruption in Adler's workplace created by that association. Rather, this case hinges on a more discrete dispute as to the defendants' true motives. If simple vindictiveness against the plaintiff on account of his wife's lawsuit was the defendants' true motive, a First Amendment violation would be established. 27 Second, even if Adler's supervisors had been aware of his wife's lawsuit and even if a Pickering-type balance is appropriate to balance a public employee's right of intimate association against the employer's interest in avoiding disruption attributable to the combination of her lawsuit and his marital relationship with her, it would take a very strong showing of such disruption to tip the balance in the employer's favor. There is nothing in the record to suggest that the lawsuit brought by Adler's wife threatened the proper functioning of OMRDD, where Adler was employed, to a degree sufficient to permit his discharge.