Opinion ID: 2994104
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Thomsen’s First Amendment retaliation claim

Text: In order to establish a sec. 1983 claim based on the First Amendment, a plaintiff must demonstrate that (1) his conduct was constitutionally protected and (2) his conduct was a substantial factor or motivating factor in the defendant’s challenged actions. See Mt. Healthy City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 287 (1977); Johnson v. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 70 F.3d 469, 482 (7th Cir. 1995). The plaintiff cannot prevail unless he establishes that the defendant would not have taken the challenged actions but for the constitutionally protected conduct. See id.; Button v. Harden, 814 F.2d 382, 383 (7th Cir. 1987). If the plaintiff meets his burden, the burden shifts and the defendant must show by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have taken the same actions even in the absence of the protected conduct. Mt. Healthy, 429 U.S. at 287; Johnson, 70 F.3d at 482. In this case, the first prong of the Mt. Healthy analysis is not at issue; the defendants do not contest that the matters Thomsen raised in the RFI were of public concern and thus constitutionally protected. Even if Thomsen met his burden on the first prong, however, the district court found that Thomsen failed to meet his burden on the second prong, because Thomsen failed to present evidence demonstrating that his participation in filing the RFI motivated the defendants to take adverse actions against him. Indeed, Thomsen did not establish that but for the filing of the RFI, Romeis would not have issued either the letter of counseling regarding keeping his manual updated or the written warning about following seniority order when determining who received overtime vacancies. Nor did Thomsen establish that but for the filing of the RFI, Gould would not have issued an oral reprimand in written form regarding Thomsen’s failure to appear in court in proper uniform. Finally, Thomsen failed to provide evidence establishing that his termination was motivated by his involvement in the RFI rather than by his inability to function as a patrol officer because of his disabled shoulder.
Thomsen argues that each of the three reprimands--the two from Romeis and the one from Gould--constituted an adverse action. He contends that because he had never received a written reprimand during his eight-year tenure with the Department, the three reprimands he received in short order after filing the RFI demonstrate that the defendants were retaliating against him. Although the timing of these events do appear suspicious--the RFI was filed in February 1994 and two of the reprimands were issued in February 1994 and one in April 1994--we are barred from typically draw[ing] strong conclusions from the mere fact that protected speech may have preceded an adverse employment decision. Wright v. Illinois Dept. of Children & Family Servs., 40 F.3d 1492, 1500 (7th Cir. 1994). Furthermore, it is unclear that the three incidents of which Thomsen complains constituted adverse employment actions. It is true that adverse acts need not be monstrous to be actionable; the acts need only create the potential for chilling employee speech on matters of public concern. DeGuiseppe v. Village of Bellwood, 68 F.3d 187, 192 (7th Cir. 1995). However, [t]o be considered materially adverse a change in the circumstances of employment must be more disruptive than a mere inconvenience or an alteration of job responsibilities. And it certainly must be adverse in the sense that the employee is made worse off by it. Id. (citation and internal quotation omitted). It is unclear how Thomsen was made worse off by the reprimands of which he complains. Thomsen argues that the three reprimands--the letter of counseling about updating his policy manual, which explicitly stated that it was non-disciplinary in nature; the written warning about his failure to follow seniority order in assigning overtime; and the oral reprimand regarding his failure to wear a long-sleeved shirt to court--could lead to future discipline and affect his ability to compete for promotions. These consequences, considered either individually or in conjunction with each other, appear to be somewhat speculative. Furthermore, Thomsen failed to demonstrate how the disciplinary warnings were related to his actual discharge, even though the warnings occurred very shortly after he filed his RFI. Moreover, Thomsen presented no admissible evidence demonstrating that he was treated differently than other officers who violated the same procedures but did not participate in the RFI. The only comparative evidence that Thomsen offered is his testimony that other officers also violated the uniform code, but Thomsen failed to present any admissible evidence establishing that the officers referred to were not disciplined for their violations. Furthermore, Thomsen failed to present evidence establishing that Lieutenant Gould, who issued the reprimand regarding the uniform violation, was acting at the direction of one of the defendants. In addition, Thomsen admits that he had violated Department policy in each instance that he was reprimanded. Thus, Thomsen failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that he would not have received the reprimands in the absence of filing the RFI. Furthermore, Thomsen failed to demonstrate that these three disciplinary actions influenced his ultimate discharge.
A plaintiff cannot prevail on a retaliatory discharge claim if the decision to terminate him would have been reasonable even in the absence of the protected conduct. See Mt. Healthy, 429 U.S. at 287; Khuans v. School Dist. 110, 123 F.3d 1010, 1014 (7th Cir. 1997); Conner v. Reinhard, 847 F.2d 384, 393 (7th Cir. 1988). Thomsen failed to meet his burden of proving that he would not have been terminated in the absence of protected conduct; indeed, Thomsen admitted that he had advised the Department that he had a shoulder disability and that his continuing to serve as a patrol officer at the time of his discharge would have been unsafe. Thomsen contends that, had he not filed his RFI, defendants would have attempted to accommodate him by reassigning employees or at least inviting other employees to consider moving into different positions. Thomsen presented no evidence to support this contention. Even if Thomsen had been able to marshal evidence to support this speculative assertion, defendants did nothing improper by declining to undertake Thomsen’s proposed changes. Cf. Pond v. Michelin North America, Inc., 183 F.3d 592, 595 (7th Cir. 1999) (holding that employers are not required to bump other employees from occupied positions in order to reasonably accommodate disabled employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act); Eckles v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 94 F.3d 1041, 1051-52 (7th Cir. 1996) (same). In addition, Thomsen’s contention that Thiesen, a Board member, angrily ordered him away from a town meeting in September 1994 does nothing to support his claim. First, this incident took place after Thomsen’s termination in August 1994. Second, even if we accept Thomsen’s reasoning that Thiesen was angry at him in September 1994, and therefore was angry at him when he was employed with the Department before that, a defendant’s anger against a plaintiff does not alone establish that the challenged actions would not have occurred but for the constitutionally protected conduct. See Johnson, 70 F.3d at 482. Thus, just as with the three reprimands discussed above, Thomsen failed to produce evidence that he would not have been terminated in the absence of his protected conduct. Nor did Thomsen demonstrate that the Department had any obligation to transfer him, and we will not second-guess his employer’s decision not to do so, since this court is not a ’super-personnel department’ weighing the prudence of employment decisions. Gleason v. Mesirow Fin., Inc., 118 F.3d 1134, 1139 (7th Cir. 1997) (quoting Giannopoulos v. Brach & Brock Confections, Inc., 109 F.3d 406, 410 (7th Cir. 1997) (citations omitted)).