Opinion ID: 670636
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: First Amendment Association Claims

Text: 21 Plaintiffs claim that Pierce, Pruett and DeKalb County violated their First Amendment right to associate with Maury Winkler, who was also terminated when the Planning & Engineering Division was eliminated but is not a party to this litigation. It is the plaintiffs' contention that the elimination of the Planning & Engineering Division was solely a ploy to get rid of Maury Winkler. 22 There exists two different forms of association which are granted special protection under the First Amendment: to-wit: intimate association and expressive association. McCabe v. Sharrett, 12 F.3d 1558, 1562-63 (11th Cir.1994), citing, Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 617-18, 104 S.Ct. 3244, 3249-50, 82 L.Ed.2d 462 (1984); and City of Dallas v. Stanglin, 490 U.S. 19, 23-25, 109 S.Ct. 1591, 1594-95, 104 L.Ed.2d 18 (1989). As emphasized in McCabe: 23 At a minimum, the right of intimate association encompasses the personal relationships that attend the creation and sustenance of a family--marriage, childbirth, the raising and education of children, and cohabitation with one's relatives. [Roberts, 468 U.S.] at 619, 104 S.Ct. at 3250. Whether the right extends to other relationships depends on the extent to which those attachments share the qualities distinctive to family relationships, such as 'relative smallness' and 'seclusion from others in critical aspects of the relationship.' Id. at 620, 104 S.Ct. at 3250. The right of expressive association--the freedom to associate for the purpose of engaging in activities protected by the First Amendment, such as speech, assembly, petition for the redress of grievances, and the exercise of religion--is protected by the First Amendment as a necessary corollary of the rights that the amendment protects by its terms.... Therefore, a plaintiff ... can obtain special protection for an asserted associational right if [he] can demonstrate either that the asserted association closely enough resembles a family relationship to be protected by the right to intimate association, or that the purpose of the association is to engage in activities independently protected by the First Amendment. 24 McCabe, 12 F.3d at 1563. 25 As applied to this action, plaintiffs have neither alleged in their complaint nor presented any evidence to establish the existence at any time of an association between any of the plaintiffs and Maury Winkler which is entitled to special constitutional protection. Consequently, neither Pierce nor Pruett has violated any clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known with respect to plaintiffs and each is thus entitled to qualified immunity. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738; Post, 7 F.3d at 1556. Plaintiffs have also failed to establish any basis on which DeKalb County could be held liable under Sec. 1983 for a violation of plaintiffs' rights to associate. The district court erred in failing to grant summary judgment in favor of Pierce, Pruett and DeKalb County on plaintiffs' freedom of association claims.