Opinion ID: 3018370
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected the

Text: “alter ego” approach in Fields v. Johnson The Caucus relied on the D.C. Circuit’s decision in Browning v. U.S. House of Representatives as a second case demonstrating a circuit split over which test should govern legislative immunity. See Browning v. U.S. House of Representatives, 789 F.2d 923, 929 (D.C. Cir. 1986). However, that Court unanimously and explicitly overturned Browning in its en banc decision in Fields v. Office of Eddie Bernice Johnson, and unanimously applied Forrester’s functional test to personnel actions. 459 F.3d 1, 6-7 (D.C. Cir. 2006). The D.C. Circuit held in Browning that “the standard for determining Speech or Debate Clause immunity is best expressed as whether the employee’s duties were directly related to the due functioning of the legislative process.” Browning, 789 F.2d at 929. The Court concluded that the official reporter for the House was directly related to the legislative process and, 17 therefore, his firing was shielded by absolute legislative immunity. Id. The Fields decision reconsidered Browning in light of Forrester. See 459 F.3d at 6-7. Fields was the consolidated appeals of two Congressional employees seeking redress for firings allegedly based on racial and disability discrimination. Id. at 5. The discharged employees availed themselves of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, 2 U.S.C. §§ 1301-1438, which, by its terms, does not displace Speech and Debate Clause immunity. Fields, 459 F.3d at 5. The D.C. Circuit noted that Forrester “cast doubt” on Browning. Id. at 7. The Court stated that its decision in Gross v. Winter had narrowed Browning, as the Court had found that Forrester, not Browning, controlled in a personnel action by a D.C. Council member. Id. See Gross v. Winter, 876 F.2d 165, 170 (D.C. Cir. 1989) (observing that Browning is “unquestionably [in] tension” with Forrester, “which accords no weight to the duties of the employee”). The Court noted with dismay that the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Bastien had created a circuit split. Fields, 459 F.3d at 8. See Bastien v. Office of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 390 F.3d 1301 (10th Cir. 2004). In explicitly rejecting the Browning test, the Bastien Court held that Speech and Debate Clause immunity protected a U.S. Senator in a personnel action only when the plaintiff “questioned the conduct of official Senate legislative business.” Bastien, 390 F.3d at 1304. The Fields Court stated that many personnel actions lack 18 even “some nexus” to a protected legislative activity and that, “[f]iring an aide for falsifying expense reports, or disciplining an assistant for harassing others in the office is not, by any conceivable interpretation, an act performed as a part of or even incidental to the role of a legislator.” 459 F.3d at 11 (quoting United States v. Brewster, 408 U.S. 526, 507(1972)). The majority opinion written by Judge Randolph overturned Browning: We now see that an employee’s duties are too crude a proxy for protected activity. Our holding in Browning presumes that a personnel decision with regard to an employee whose duties are “directly related to the due functioning of the legislative process,” is always “an integral part of the deliberative and communicative processes.” But the presumption is, at a minimum, overinclusive and therefore inconsistent with the Court’s practice of being “careful not to extend the scope of the protection further than its purposes require.” Any number of counter-examples reveal as much: a legislative aide may be discharged because of budgetary cutbacks; a staff member may be demoted solely for consistent tardiness; a person seeking a top-level staff position might be rejected for having a poor college transcript; and so forth. That the person targeted by the personnel decision performs duties “directly related to . . . the legislative process,” is not enough–conduct must 19 be “part of,” not merely “related to,” the “due functioning” of the “legislative process” to be protected by the Speech or Debate Clause. At best, that an employee’s duties are directly related to the legislative process establishes merely “some nexus” between the personnel decision and that process. We therefore reject Browning’s test for determining when a legislator's personnel decision is protected by the Speech or Debate Clause. Id. at 11-12 (internal citations omitted). The Court then rejected the argument that “[d]irecting one’s alter egos–that is, legislative aides with duties directly related to the legislative process–necessarily is an integral part of the processes of achieving one’s legislative goals, because of the duties such employees perform.” Id. at 12 (internal quotes omitted). The Court noted that “[t]he Speech or Debate Clause protects conduct that is integral to the legislative process, not a Member’s legislative goals,” and that many activities that are integral to “legislative goals,” such as sending newsletters or delivering speeches to constituents, are “political,” not “legislative,”–and are therefore beyond the scope of legislative immunity. Id. The Court also noted that, “[a]nother problem with the formulation lies in its assumption that a Member only directs his alter egos with regard to constitutionally protected activities.” Id. The Fields Court emphasized Gravel’s conclusion that simply because a Senator performs certain duties in his official capacity does not make those duties legislative. Id. (citing Gravel v. United States, 408 U.S. 606, 625 (1972)). 20 The Fields Court held that, “[l]egislative aides are no different.” Fields, 459 F.3d at 12. The Fields Court was splintered on some issues, but not,