Opinion ID: 771927
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Due Process Implications of Accusations Impugning Llamas's Reputation for Honesty.

Text: 33 We have held that a plaintiff's liberty interest is implicated only when the state makes a charge against him that might seriously damage his standing and associations in his community. Stretten v. Wadsworth Veterans Hosp., 537 F.2d 361, 365 (9th Cir. 1976) (internal quotations omitted). Under the Supreme Court's holding in Roth, due process protections will apply if 1) the accuracy of the charge is contested; 2) there is some public disclosure of the charge; and 3) it is made in connection with the termination of employment or the alteration of some right or status recognized by state law. Vanelli, 667 F.2d at 777-78 (citing Roth, 408 U.S. at 573). The heart of the dispute before us is the second prong -whether there has been some public disclosure of the charge that Llamas cheated. Without a disclosure that is public, there is no violation of due process as the reasons stated to him in private [would have] no different impact on his reputation than if they had been true. Bishop, 426 U.S. at 349. 34
35 The district court found that defendants have kept the circumstances of Llamas's termination in the strictest confidence. There is no evidence in the record to the contrary. Nonetheless, Llamas disputes the district court's conclusion that his personnel file can be defined as not including the internal documents that the District relied upon in terminating him and barring him from future employment. 36 Llamas argues that a provision of the California Education Code, entitled Personnel file contents and inspection, requires that any documents relied upon in the decision that affected his employment status at the Community College be characterized as part of his personnel file. See Cal. Educ. Code 87031 (West 1999); Miller v. Chico Unified Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 24 Cal. 3d 703, 707 (Cal. 1979). In interpreting a similar provision of the Education Code, the California Supreme Court has noted that a school district cannot avoid the requirements of the statute by maintaining a personnel file for some documents relating to an employee while segregating elsewhere, under a different label, materials that may serve as a basis for affecting the status of the employee's employment. Id. 37 However, we need not determine the applicability of Miller to analyze Llamas's due process claims because Miller relied on a different legal basis for implicating due process rights, 1 namely, the California Education Code. As noted above, Llamas has waived any argument that California Education Code 87031 creates an independent ground for his due process claim. Rather, Llamas's due process arguments are limited to whether defendants' actions implicated a liberty interest by attaching a stigma to him or preventing him from engaging in the common occupations of life. Because Llamas fails to present properly the statutory ground for due process, Llamas cannot rely on Miller to support his due process claims before this Court. Llamas does not appear to challenge the district court's discretion in declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over his state law claims. 38
39 Despite the absence of evidence that defendants made the circumstances surrounding Llamas's employment or termination public to anyone but him, Llamas argues that retention of stigmatizing material in his personnel file can constitute disclosure  by his former employer. We have recently acknowledged that it remains an open question in this Circuit whether, in order to trigger due process protections, the stigmatizing charges must be publicized by the employer. Mustafa v. Clark County Sch. Dist., 157 F.3d 1169, 1179 n.10 (9th Cir. 1998) (citing Olivieri v. Rodriguez, 122 F.3d 406, 408 (7th Cir. 1997) (listing cases from other circuits)). 40 We said in Mustafa that the district court's finding that the charges were not publicized may be problematical  when details surrounding the charges remained in the employee's personnel file. Id. at 1179. Llamas argues that this acknowledgment demonstrates that we should adopt the rule that maintaining stigmatizing files constitutes publication. However, in Mustafa, the employer refused to remove documents relating to the discharge. See id. at 1178. But here the district court found, and the record before us supports the conclusion, that defendants purged Llamas's personnel file so that the only notation in his current record relating to his termination is a statement indicating that he was removed from on-call availability roster 10-20-97. 2 The current content of the personnel file is not derogatory. Any allegations of cheating made by the defendants are not publicized by this notation. Compare id. We do not need to address the current circuit split as to whether an employer can satisfy the publication prong by maintaining stigmatizing information in its personnel files. 41 We are not persuaded by Llamas's further assertion that persons pursuing law enforcement careers in California are not required to make the same showing of public disclosure because application for such a career often requires confidentiality waivers and extensive background investigations. Both cases cited by Llamas involved the termination of police officers for alleged misconduct and the maintenance of stigmatizing information in their personnel files. See Lubey v. City and County of San Francisco, 98 Cal. App. 3d 340, 347 (1979); Murden v. County of Sacramento, 160 Cal. App. 3d 302, 308 (1984). The Murden Court, citing Lubey, found that it must realistically assume that potential employers in the public law enforcement field would investigate petitioner's background and discover the reasons for his suspension and termination. Id. at 309. Accordingly, the state appeals court found that the employee's due process rights were implicated. See id. 42 These law enforcement cases can be distinguished, however, because the internal investigations leading to the terminations in Murden and Lubey were issues of public interest since the employees were police officers at the time and there was evidence that the public was aware of some details surrounding their alleged official misconduct. See id. We reject Llamas's invitation to create an enhanced due process right for someone employed in another field who may later seek to pursue a career in law enforcement. 43
44 Having concluded that defendants' actions do not satisfy the public disclosure prong, the only other avenue for disclosure is by Llamas himself. Llamas argues that his truthful response to law enforcement application questions regarding his discharge from employment is sufficient to satisfy the public disclosure requirement of a deprivation of liberty interest under the Due Process Clause. However, the cases cited by Llamas in support of the proposition that his own disclosure can implicate due process protections all involve continuing maintenance of the stigmatizing information in the personnel file. See, e.g., Mustafa, 157 F.3d at 1179; Donato v. Plainview-Old Bethpage Cent. Sch. Dist., 96 F.3d 623 (2d Cir. 1996); Brant v. Board of Coop. Educ. Servs., 820 F.2d 41, 45 (2d Cir. 1987); Lubey, 98 Cal. App. 3d at 347. 45 We acknowledge that the publication prong of the due process test does not specify which party must have publicized the stigmatizing charges in order to implicate due process protections. See Mustafa, 157 F.3d at 1179 (citing Roth, 408 U.S. at 573). However, to allow the potentially stigmatized party to satisfy the publication prong by disseminating the details surrounding his termination would contradict the purposes of the publication requirement as made clear in subsequent Supreme Court precedent. See Bishop, 426 U.S. at 349. See also Olivieri, 122 F.3d at 409. 3 Since we are unaware of any binding case law involving an expunged personnel file to support such a departure from the purposes underlying Supreme Court precedent, we affirm the district court's holding that Llamas's due process rights are not implicated by his own disclosures. 4 46