Court Opinion

ID: 9454199
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:38:59.698808+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:00.597946
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting);
Six school teachers 1 seek damages under the Civil Rights Act against officials of the Gould School District for alleged deprivation of constitutional rights. Their claims arise out of the school board’s nonrenewal of their teaching contracts for the 1967-68 school term. The plaintiffs claim that the school officials have arbitrarily excluded them in that there exists no evidentiary support for their rejection because of alleged professional incompeteney. The sole issue is whether, under these circumstances, the district court was correct in holding that the plaintiffs have failed to state a claim cognizable under the Civil Rights Act, Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The majority affirms the ruling below. I respectfully dissent.
The record demonstrates that the board has adopted the charges of overall incompetence brought by the principal, Horace Itty Dalton, in his official notification of release given to the teachers in May 1967.2 Plaintiffs allege that Dalton’s purge was based upon personal con*1162siderations completely unrelated to their professional competency.3 The evidence is unequivocal that Dalton’s charges of the teachers’ incompetency are based upon conclusory, contradictory and incredible statements.4 Plaintiffs’ evi*1163dence clearly establishes that these charges of incompetency have no basis in fact.
The majority opinion assumes that the protective cloak of the due process clause as enunciated in Slochower v. Board of Higher Educ., 350 U.S. 551, 76 S.Ct. 637, 100 L.Ed. 692 (1956), does not apply to a public school teacher who is without tenure under Arkansas law. I disagree. Constitutional rights of public school teachers are not conditioned upon state tenure laws. The entire discussion of "tenure” is irrelevant to the facts here. Slochower does not turn upon recognition of tenure laws but upon the denial of the “ ‘protection of the individual against arbitrary action’ ” which violates due process of law. Id. at 559, 76 S.Ct. at 641. The existence of the New York tenure laws in Slochower was incidental to the decision. To reason otherwise is to disregard the teachings of Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 81 S.Ct. 247, 5 L.Ed.2d 231 (1960).5 The Supreme Court there recognized that a renewal of a teacher’s contract, notwithstanding lack of tenure under Arkansas law, cannot be refused on arbitrary or capricious grounds. Involved in Shelton was the denial of a constitutional privilege, namely, freedom of association. However, the significance of the Shelton holding is that this denial constituted such arbitrary and unreasonable grounds for refusal to renew a teacher’s contract that it was deemed violative of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The majority narrowly interpret Shelton and its progenitors to say that the only time an individual can claim protection of due process from arbitrary governmental exclusion is when there has been a denial of an independent and separate constitutional right, such as freedom of association, or racial discrimination. None of these cases is so restricted. Overlooked are the principles of Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 77 S.Ct. 752, 1 L.Ed.2d 796 (1957) and Konigsberg v. State Bar, 353 U.S. 252, 77 S.Ct. 722, 1 L.Ed.2d 810 (1957).
In Schware, supra, a prospective lawyer had been barred from becoming a licensed member of a state bar and the Supreme Court in granting him relief observed :
“A State cannot exclude a person from the practice of law or from any other occupation in a manner or for reasons that contravene the Due Process or Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. * * * Even in applying permissible standards, officers of a State cannot exclude an applicant when there is no basis for their finding that he fails to meet these standards * * (My emphasis.)
353 U.S. at 238-239, 77 S.Ct. at 756.6 And see United States ex rel. Vajtauer v. Commissioner of Immigration, 273 U.S. 103, 106, 47 S.Ct. 302, 304, 71 L.Ed. 560 (1927):
“Deportation without a fair hearing or on charges unsupported by any evidence is a denial of due process * * (My emphasis.)
The majority stresses that aside from racial discrimination, arbitrary exclusion depends upon a regulation or statute. I *1164submit the Fourteenth Amendment covers more than legislative action of the state. It “governs any action of a State, ‘whether through its legislature, through its courts, or through its executive or administrative officers.’ ” (My emphasis.) Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103, 113, 55 S.Ct. 340, 342, 79 L.Ed. 791 (1935). This principle is so entrenched in constitutional law that citation of authority should not be necessary. Cf., Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 373-374, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220 (1886). As stated in Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516, 531-532, 4 S.Ct. 111, 119, 28 L.Ed. 232 (1884):
“In this, country written constitutions were deemed essential to protect the rights and liberties of the people against the encroachments of power delegated to their governments, and the provisions of Magna Charta were incorporated into Bills of Rights. They were limitations upon all the powers of government, legislative as well as executive and judicial.” (My emphasis.)
The majority finally urges that Schware is distinguishable because “that case dealt with the general right to practice a profession and did not deal with the narrower question of a right to specific employment.” This same argument was urged in Wieman v. Updegraff, 344 U.S. 183, 191-192, 73 S.Ct. 215, 219, 97 L.Ed. 216 (1952), and there answered by the Supreme Court:
“We are referred to our statement in Adler [Adler v. Board of Educ., 342 U.S. 485, 72 S.Ct. 380, 96 L.Ed. 517] that persons seeking employment in the New York public schools have ‘no right to work for the State in the school system on their own terms. United Public Workers v. Mitchell * * *. They may work for the school system upon the reasonable terms laid down by the proper authorities of New York.’ 342 U.S., at 492, [72 S.Ct., at 384]. To draw from this language the facile generalization that there is no constitutionally protected right to public employment is to obscure the issue. * * * We need not pause to consider whether an abstract right to public employment exists. It is sufficient to say that constitutional protection does extend to the public servant whose exclusion * * * is patently arbitrary or discriminatory.” (M’y emphasis.)
I think it clear that although an individual teacher has no constitutional right to be hired for a particular position, nevertheless, a school board’s selection process in a renewal of a teacher’s contract cannot be upon an arbitrary or capricious basis. The pursuit of a chosen employment has been recognized as a right which is “of the very essence of the personal freedom and opportunity that it was the purpose of the [Fourteenth] Amendment to secure.” Truax v. Raich, 239 U.S. 33, 41, 36 S.Ct. 7, 10, 60 L.Ed. 131 (1915). Cf., United States v. Lovett, 328 U.S. 303, 314, 66 S.Ct. 1073, 90 L.Ed. 1252 (1946). The “right to teach” is a recognized “liberty.” Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399, 43 S.Ct. 625, 67 L.Ed. 1042 (1923). Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 89 S.Ct. 266, 21 L.Ed.2d 228 (1968). Cf., Bomar v. Keyes, 162 F.2d 136 (2 Cir. 1947) (an “interest” may be “an expectancy of continued employment”). See also Note, 81 Harv.L.Rev. 1045, 1080 (1968). This principle has been made viable in many eases relating to government employees, including teachers, lawyers and other vocations wherein an arm of government arbitrarily seeks to deprive a citizen from his rightful pursuit of employment. In Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578, 589-590, 17 S.Ct. 427, 431, 41 L.Ed. 832 (1897), the Court said:
“It was said by Mr. Justice Bradley in Butchers’ Union Company v. Crescent City Company, 111 U.S. 746, 762, [4 U.S.Ct. 652, 657, 28 L.Ed. 585] in the course of his concurring opinion in that case, that ‘The right to follow any of the common occupations of life is an inalienable right. It was formulated as such under the phrase “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, which commenced with the fundamental proposition that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain in*1165alienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This right is a large ingredient in the civil liberty of the citizen.’ Again, on page 764, [4 S.Ct. 652] the learned justice said: T hold that the liberty of pursuit — the right to follow any of the ordinary callings of life — is one of the privileges of a citizen of the United States.’ And again, on page 765, [4 S.Ct. 652]: ‘But if it does not abridge the privileges and immunities of a citizen of the United States to prohibit him from pursuing his chosen calling, and giving to others the exclusive right of pursuing it, it certainly does deprive him (to a certain extent) of his liberty; for it takes from him the freedom of adopting and following the pursuit which he prefers; which, as already intimated, is a material part of the liberty of the citizen.’ It is true that these remarks were made in regard to questions of monopoly, but they well describe the rights which are covered by the word ‘liberty’ as contained in the Fourteenth Amendment.”
In Birnbaum v. Trussel, 371 F.2d 672 (2 Cir. 1966), the Second Circuit reviewed a suit brought under the Civil Rights Act by a physician who was dismissed from a municipal hospital in Brooklyn, New York, without notice of charges. Other city hospitals were notified not to put Dr. Birnbaum on their staffs. He was later told his discharge was because of his “anti-Negro” bias which had been complained of by union employees working at the hospital. The district court denied plaintiff’s complaint for failure to state a ground for relief. The court of appeals sustained the lower court’s ruling that plaintiff did not allege facts sufficient to establish a deprivation of equal protection of laws under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), but held a claim was stated for a conspiracy to violate 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The court, after reviewing the existing cases, noted:
“The principle to be extracted from these eases is that, whenever there is a substantial interest, other than employment by the state, involved in the discharge of a public employee, he can be removed neither on arbitrary grounds nor without a procedure calculated to determine whether legitimate grounds do exist.” (My emphasis.) 371 F.2d at 678.
The court then stated that it considers “the ability to pursue a profession effectively” to be a substantial interest and noted that this interest has received “meticulous protection * * * to prevent direct injury by arbitrary state action.” 371 F.2d at 678-679 n. 13. Immediate temptation exists to distinguish the denial of the license to practice law or the discharge of the city doctor from the status of the “non-tenure” teacher whose contract is not renewed. However, analysis makes such distinction superficial. In each situation, the right to the specified job is not in issue; rather, the focal stake is the personal liberty to pursue one’s employment without arbitrary vilification and reckless exclusion by the state.
The result here also overlooks the full implications of Greene v. McElroy,7 360 U.S. 474, 492, 79 S.Ct. 1400, 3 L.Ed.2d 1377 (1959) and Cafeteria & Restaurant Workers Union, etc. v. McElroy, 367 U.S. 886, 81 S.Ct. 1743 (1961). In Cafeteria Workers, relief was denied a cook who lost her job for failure to meet security regulations of a Naval Gun Factory. The majority opinion emphasizes that the exclusion did not in any way impair the employee’s employment opportunities elsewhere8 because the plaintiff there *1166had been offered other employment that did not require compliance with security regulations.
The instant facts fall within the statement of the Supreme Court in Cafeteria Workers, 367 U.S. at 897-898, 81 S.Ct. at 1750:
“[T]he state and federal governments, even in the exercise of their internal operations, do not constitutionally have the complete freedom of action enjoyed by a private employer. But to acknowledge that there exist constitutional restraints upon state and federal governments in dealing with their employees is not to say that all such employees have a constitutional right to notice and a hearing before they can be removed. We may assume that Rachel Brawner could not constitutionally have been excluded from the Gun Factory if the announced grounds for her exclusion had been patently arbitrary or discriminatory- — that she could not have been kept out because she was a Democrat or a Methodist. It does not follow, however, that she was entitled to notice and a hearing when the reason advanced for her exclusion was, as here, entirely rational and in accord with the contract with M & M.
“Finally, it is to be noted that this is not a case where government action has operated to bestow a badge of disloyalty or infamy, with an attendant foreclosure from other employment opportunity.” (My emphasis.)
Has a “badge of infamy” been bestowed upon these teachers by Dalton’s reckless charges? To assume the negative is to obscure realistic appraisal of the plaintiffs’ opportunities for future employment in their profession. The present charges of incompetency will have serious and detrimental effects on their entire teaching careers. Their respective liberty to pursue their professions within their community and state has been seriously impaired if not totally abrogated.
A teacher’s ability to earn a living by pursuing his profession is fundamentally different from other professions such as law or medicine. The teacher’s opportunities are narrowly confined. As has been observed, “admission to the profession comes through licensing, but admission to practice is dependent upon some public employer of teachers, a school district, admitting the licensed teacher to practice.” Campbell, Cunningham & McPhee, The Organization and Control of American Schools, 259 (1965). The old adage that “bad news travels fast” is devastatingly accurate in weighing a teacher’s opportunities for employment when released upon charges of incompetency. The selection of competent teachers is still competitive in Arkansas. Cf. Walton v. Nashville, Ark., Special School Dist., 401 F.2d 137 (8 Cir. 1968).
In comparing selection of teachers with the process of release, it has been said:
“Moreover, appointment is done privately, it has no public repercussions for the rejected candidates. It carries no implication concerning the unfitness of the latter, whereas dismissal has very serious consequences for the reputation and the future of the person who is subjected to it.” (My emphasis.)
MacIver, Academic Freedom in Our Time 171 (1955).
It is difficult to imagine how plaintiffs’ abilities to pursue the teaching profession could have been more thoroughly circumscribed than they were here. Indeed, as in Birnbaum v. Trussel, supra, the issue here is the right to pursue a profession effectively. See also, Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, supra; Konigsberg v. State Bar, supra; Slochower v. Board of Higher Educ., supra; Wieman v. Updegraff, supra; Douglas v. Noble, 261 U.S. 165, 43 S.Ct. 303, 67 L.Ed. 590 (1923); Crane v. Johnson, 242 U.S. 339, 37 S.Ct. 176, 61 L.Ed. 348 *1167(1917); Dent v. West Virginia, 129 U.S. 114, 9 S.Ct. 231, 32 L.Ed. 623 (1889); Parker v. Lester, 227 F.2d 708 (9 Cir. 1955); Johnson v. Branch, 364 F.2d 177 (4 Cir. 1966).
Recognition of plaintiffs’ claims does not mean that a school board cannot exercise its discretion to reject a teacher for incompetence. To grant plaintiffs relief does not in any way raise non-tenure positions to tenure status. Nor does it mean that federal courts or the Civil Rights Act will become a haven for every disenchanted school teacher whose teaching contract is not renewed. As stated by the Supreme Court:
“Judicial interposition in the operation of the public school system of the Nation raises problems requiring care and restraint. * * * By and large, public education in our Nation is committed to the control of state and local authorities. Courts do not and cannot intervene in the resolution of conflicts which arise in the daily operation of school systems and which do not directly and sharply implicate basic constitutional values. On the other hand, ‘The vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American schools,’ Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 487, 81 S.Ct. 247, 251 (1960) * * *."
Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 104, 89 S.Ct. 266, 270 (1968).
When the board's discretion is challenged, the burden of proof always remains on the plaintiff to demonstrate impermissible grounds. This burden was satisfied here. A proper holding here would relate only to that area of judicial review which traditionally protects individuals from arbitrary and capricious actions of a state. When governmental arbitrary action occurs under color of state law, and an individual has been deprived of federal rights as a result thereof he should appropriately be able to seek redress in the federal courts under the civil rights statutes. It seems to me this is what this case is all about. As long as a public school board chooses to set forth reasons for a teacher’s exclusion and the stated grounds are damaging to professional qualification, I submit the Constitution affords the protection of substantive due process.9
I would reverse and remand with directions for the trial court to find for each of the plaintiffs and to receive evidence as to appropriate damages to be awarded. Cf. Smith v. Board of Educ. of Morrilton School Dist., 365 F.2d 770 (8 Cir. 1966).

. Mrs. Nichols had taught 24 years in the elementary department in Field School with a B.S. degree in elementary education; Mrs. Freeman had taught 36 years in the elementary department in Field School with a B.S. degree in elementary education; Mrs. Woods had taught two years in the elementary department and holds a B.S. degree in elementary education ; Mrs. Walker had taught only since February 1967, and has a B.S. degree in home economics; Mrs. Calloway had taught four years and has a B.S. degree in home economics; and Mrs. Wilhite had taught four years in the high school and has a B.S. degree in home economics.

. Mr. Sage, the Superintendent of Schools, testified in his deposition :

P. 189 of Record

“Q. Is the reason or the basis for the termination given by Mr. Dalton that she was incompetent, is that the reason you failed to recommend that she be rehired?
“A. That’s right. On Mr. Dalton’s recommendation.
“Q. But it was based on her incompetence?
“A. That’s right.”

P. 191 of Record

“Q. Did you investigate the charges that he [Dalton] made to determine *1162whether or not there was any substance to them? Did you personally investigate each case?
“A. No. There was no way for me to investigate. If he [Dalton] says the teacher is incompetent, why we put him in there to run that school and hold him responsible for it and if we do, why then we think he should have the right to have recommendations on the teachers.
“Q. Did the board investigate the substance?
“A. No.”

. Each of the teachers charged denied that she had ever done anything wrong and specifically rebutted the truthfulness of any of Dalton’s specific charges. Mr. Sage testified that he did not have any reason to believe any of the teachers charged were not truthful in their testimony. He had never received any complaints from persons about the performance of the teachers charged. Each of the teachers had a college degree and generally had teaching experience. See, n. 1, supra.
Plaintiff teachers allege that Dalton’s dislike for them arises from various situations unrelated to their teaching positions, each of which involved one or more of them: one teacher had testified against him on a criminal charge arising out of a situation where Dalton was arrested when he brandished a gun; the alleged association of two of them with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Gould; the assertion by Dalton that the NAACP “bunch” was opposed to him as a principal; rebuffs by two of the teachers of alleged improper advances (“propositioning”) made by Dalton; the failure of one teacher to conduct adult classes which were separately funded and distinct from her regular school duties; a spat between two teachers over a car pool arrangement which resulted in Dalton placing a “question mark” behind one of their names; the accusation that one of the teachers was being uncooperative with Dalton by refusing to accept bus duty whereas she was teaching under a special program and had been excused from bus duty by the superintendent; and the accusations of “insubordination” for going over Dalton’s head whereas the superintendent encouraged the teachers to bring their problems directly to him.

. For example, Mr. Dalton, the principal, was questioned concerning the competency of the various teachers :

P. 37 of Record

“Q. Mr. Dalton, * * * What are the standards that you use for determining whether or not a person is competent ?
“A. I don’t know what her [Mrs. Dalton’s]* standards are.
“Q. All right, then, let’s go back to yours. What are your standards?
“A. Same as hers, I guess.”

 Mrs. Dalton was the head teacher at the Field Elementary School.

P. 83 of Record

“Q. Does she [Mrs. Nichols] do a good job in the classroom?
“A. She’s a pretty good teacher.
“Q. So she is competent as a teacher?
“A. No, no. I’m not saying that.” P. 84 of Record
“Q. So you’re saying that she is not competent, but that she is a good teacher. How do you explain that, Mr. Dalton?
“A. I tell you what. The best way that could be answered is let my wife answer that question.
“Q. All right, sir. You can’t explain it?
“A. No, I can’t explain it.”
Mr Dalton was questioned:

P. 105 of Record

“Q. Is she [Mrs. Wilhite, one of the teachers not rehired] nosy? Is she nosy?
“A. Sure not nosy, but she’s worse than nosy.
“Q. Worse than nosy. How is she worse than nosy?
“A. No.
“Q. You don’t know?
“A. No.”
Again the testimony of Mr. Dalton:

P. 68-09 of Record

“Q. Have you been in the classroom long enough to observe that?
“A. I don’t need to be in there.
“Q. How do you know they didn’t do it?
“A. I get reports. I don’t have time to sit in a classroom.
“Q. Are those reports written?
“A. No, they wasn’t written.
“Q. We have no way of looking at those reports, do we?
“A. You can only take my word for it.”

. Compare Bomar v. Keyes, 162 F.2d 136 (2 Cir. 1947), where a “probationary teacher” in New York, without tenure, was found to have stated a claim for relief under the Civil Rights Act arising out of her dismissal for absenteeism due to federal jury service.

. In Konigsberg v. State Bar, 353 U.S. 252, 262, 77 S.Ct. 722, 728 (1957), the Supreme Court said:
“Konigsberg claims that he established his good moral character by overwhelming evidence and carried the burden of proving that he does not advocate overthrow of the Government. He contends here, as he did in the California court, that there is no evidence in the record which rationally supports a finding of doubt about his character or loyalty. If this contention is correct, he has been denied the right to practice law although there was no basis for the finding that he failed to meet the qualifications which the State demands of a person seeking to become a lawyer. If this is true, California’s refusal to admit him is a denial of due process and of equal protection of the laws because both arbitrary and discriminatory.’’ (My emphasis.)

. Although the Court in Cafeteria & Restaurant Workers Union, etc. v. McElroy, 367 U.S. 886, 81 S.Ct. 1743, 6 L.Ed.2d 1230 (1961), limits Greene v. McElroy, 360 U.S. 474, 79 S.Ct. 1400 (1959), to a nonconstitutional basis, the Court has acknowledged that Greene had constitutional implications. See United States v. Robel, 389 U.S. 258, 263, 88 S.Ct. 419, 19 L.Ed.2d 508 (1967).

. Justice Brennan dissents, joined by Chief Justice Warren, Justices Black and Douglas. Mr. Justice Brennan there said:
*1166“Such a result in effect nullifies the substantive right — not to be arbitrarily injured by Government — which the Court purports to recognize. * * * ” 367 U.S. at 900, 81 S.Ct. at 1751.

. I find it unnecessary to discuss procedural due process. The essence of plaintiffs’ claim here is that their exclusion was arbitrarily made without basis in fact. Even had plaintiffs been given several hearings, if there exists no evidentiary support to the charges of incompetency, a claim for relief is properly stated under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Mr. Justice Harlan said in Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497, 541, 81 S.Ct. 1752, 1775, 6 L.Ed.2d 989 (1961) (dissenting opinion): “Were due process merely a procedural safeguard it would fail to reach those situations where the deprivation of life, liberty or property was accomplished by legislation which by operating in the future could, given even the fairest possible procedure in application to individuals, nevertheless destroy the enjoyment of all three. * * * ”