Opinion ID: 1459439
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Equal Protection Violations

Text: Hilton, Slocum, Rauls, and LaCour are entitled to qualified immunity for plaintiffs' Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claims because plaintiffs have failed to allege either an intent to discriminate or unequal treatment. The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from deny[ing] to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. This Equal Protection Clause `is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike.' Qutb v. Strauss, 11 F.3d 488, 492 (5th Cir.1993) (quoting City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Ctr., Inc., 473 U.S. 432, 439, 105 S.Ct. 3249, 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985)). To maintain an equal protection claim, a plaintiff typically alleges that he received treatment different from that received by similarly situated individuals and that the unequal treatment stemmed from a discriminatory intent. Taylor v. Johnson, 257 F.3d 470, 473 (5th Cir.2001); see In re United States, 397 F.3d 274, 284 (5th Cir. 2005); Beeler v. Rounsavall, 328 F.3d 813, 816-17 (5th Cir.2003); Rolf v. City of San Antonio, 77 F.3d 823, 828 (5th Cir.1996). Plaintiffs' amended complaint alleges that they have been discriminated against based on Lyle's and Dar's Creole ethnicity and Club Retro's mixed-race clientele. Plaintiffs allege four facts that they claim are sufficient to state a claim of racial discrimination: (1) the racial makeup of the Club's owners, employees, and patrons compared to that of the predominately Caucasian Rapides Parish Sheriffs Department; (2) unnamed deputy sheriffs' use of racial epithets; (3) the absence of similar raids against GG's, a white-owned nightclub that caters to white patrons; [33] and (4) statistics showing Operation Retro-Fit yielded few arrests. These allegations fail to carry plaintiffs' burden of alleging facts showing unequal treatment or discriminatory intent on the part of the planners of Operation Retro-Fit. See Twombly, 127 S.Ct. at 1965, 1974. We strongly condemn the use of racial epithets; however, the usage alleged here is not probative of disparate treatment or discriminatory intent. Plaintiffs have alleged generally that [t]he crowd was ... insulted with profanities and racial slurs and specifically that Slocum said to Erica, And you think you are White? You are not F____ing White. In Williams v. Bramer, 180 F.3d 699, 706 (5th Cir.1999), this court held that an officer's use of a racial epithet, without harassment or some other conduct that deprives the victim of established rights, does not amount to an equal protection violation. The court explained that: When leveled against a citizen by a police officer, a racial epithet, by its nature, calls attention to the citizen's racial identity. The use of an epithet is therefore strong evidence that a comment or action is racially motivated. The question in the equal protection context, however, is not just whether the conduct is racially motivated but also whether that action deprives a person of equal protection of the laws. Where the conduct at issue consists solely of speech, there is no equal protection violation. Id. (citation omitted). As deplorable and reprehensible as the use of racial profanity is, particularly in the context of intrusive displays of official police authority, plaintiffs have not alleged that any defendant made a statement that he targeted Club Retro because it was minority-owned and attracted a mixed-race and mixed-ethnicity crowd. Next, plaintiffs allege that GG's has not been raided. This allegation is insufficient to show disparate treatment where plaintiffs have failed to allege any facts showing that GG's was similarly situated. Moreover, prior to Operation Retro-Fit, Club Retro had likewise not been raided; thus, we can draw no inference of disparate treatment: [t]he first club raided had to be either black-owned or white-owned, and that it was one instead of the other proves nothing. Swint, 51 F.3d at 1000. Finally, we note that the differences in the racial or ethnic makeup of the respective parties and the post-operation statistics showing Operation Retro-Fit yielded few drug arrests are not probative, without other allegations, of unequal treatment or discriminatory intent. Thus, defendants are entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiffs' equal protection claims, and we reverse the district court's order in that regard.