Opinion ID: 579811
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Discriminatory Compensation Rates

Text: 25 House of Hope alleges that Smith consciously and with a racially discriminatory intent set compensation rates for children placed in its facility at amounts lower than that permitted by statute and lower than that afforded comparable facilities. While Thomas's affidavit references the claim, it does not attest to any personal knowledge (as opposed to suspicion) about how the rates were set. Again, House of Hope's failure to buttress its allegations of racial bias with any concrete evidence entitles Smith to qualified immunity on this count. 26 In sum, Smith is entitled to a grant of qualified immunity in this case due to the dearth of evidence substantiating House of Hope's charges of Smith's alleged unconstitutional motive. As the Supreme Court recently emphasized, qualified immunity determinations ordinarily should be decided by the court long before trial. Hunter v. Bryant, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 534, 537 (1991). To allow a single allegation of unsupported hearsay to defeat a grant of qualified immunity and force a public official to trial would render the protections of the qualified immunity doctrine illusory. See id. at 536-37; see also Harlow, 457 U.S. at 817-18.