Opinion ID: 182845
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Barton's First Amendment Activities

Text: Barton has spoken out against Mayor Clancy and the City on a number of occasions. He served as a firefighter for the City from 1976 until 2004. As president of the Lynn firefighter's union from 2000 until 2004, he was the public face of the union. In 2002, Clancy announced that the City would be laying off over thirty firefighters. In response, Barton had a series of meetings with Clancy and made statements to the local press expressing the union's position that the lay-offs would negatively affect the safety of Lynn citizens. Around this same time, Lynn firefighters picketed a fundraiser held by Clancy. Barton was present during the picketing and had a heated discussion with Clancy, in which Clancy stated to Barton, [i]t shouldn't have come to this. Barton also participated in several lawsuits against the City. In 2004, the firefighter's union filed a lawsuit against the City and Clancy, seeking funding for certain staffing clauses in the union contract. The union obtained an injunction against Clancy, ordering him to submit a funding request for the staffing clauses at issue. Also in 2004, Barton was involved in a complaint filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) against the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission, challenging the Water and Sewer Commission's hiring practices as racially discriminatory. In 2005, Barton was involved in a class action lawsuit against the City, alleging that the civil service examination used to qualify and rank applicants for firefighter positions had a disparate impact on African-American and Hispanic candidates. [2] Finally, in 2006, Barton agreed, based on his union sympathies, to be a plaintiff in a taxpayer lawsuit against the City and Clancy, which sought to block the transfer of custodial employees from the school department to the inspectional services department. Clancy was aware of Barton's involvement in these lawsuits and complaints against the City.