Court Opinion

ID: 9499712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:56:05.395954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:41.241944
License: Public Domain

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment:
I join the majority opinion except for its determination that Mary Lou Smith has failed to allege a cause of action for violation of her First Amendment rights. I believe that in her complaint Ms. Smith has indeed alleged facts sufficient to state a claim against Andrew N. Frye. But because applicability of the First Amendment to facts like those alleged was not clearly established at the time of the challenged discharge, qualified immunity protects Judge Frye from liability. Accordingly, I concur in the judgment.
I.
A.
“[T]he purpose of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion is to test the sufficiency of a complaint.” Edwards v. City of Goldsboro, 178 F.3d 231, 243 (4th Cir.1999). A 12(b)(6) motion “ ‘does not resolve contests surrounding the facts [or] the merits of a claim.’ ” Id. (quoting Republican Party v. Martin, 980 F.2d 943, 952 (4th Cir.1992)). Accordingly, an appellate court “may only affirm the dismissal of the complaint if ‘it is clear that no relief could be granted under any set of facts that could be proved consistent with the allegations.’ ” H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., 492 U.S. 229, 249-50, 109 S.Ct. 2893, 106 L.Ed.2d 195 (1989) (quoting Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984)). Moreover, when a complaint alleges a civil rights violation, “we must be especially solicitous of the wrongs alleged and must not dismiss the complaint unless it appears to a certainty that the plaintiff would not be entitled to relief under any legal theory ” that could be proved consistent with the allegations. Edwards, 178 F.3d at 244 (overturning dismissal of suspended government employee’s First Amendment claims). With these principles in mind, I turn to the allegations of Ms. Smith’s complaint, which we must take as true at this juncture.
Beginning in November 2002, Ms. Smith served as the clerk of the Magistrate Court of Mineral County, West Virginia, under the supervision of Judge Frye, Chief Judge of the 21st Judicial Circuit of West Virginia. Ms. Smith has an adult son, Greg Smith. On January 30, 2004, Greg filed to run for circuit clerk of Mineral County; he would oppose the incumbent clerk in the Republican primary. Less than a week later, Judge Frye fired Ms. Smith. Judge Frye told another judge that “he wanted to fire Ms. Smith because her son had filed to run for circuit clerk” and he was “angry at” her for this reason. Prior to this time “no complaints had been made by anyone about Ms. Smith’s performance as the Magistrate Clerk; to the contrary she was widely respected by ev*275eryone with whom she worked.” Ms. Smith’s complaint alleges that Judge Frye discharged her “because her son, Greg Smith, had filed to run against the incumbent Circuit Clerk in the Republican Party primary and because the defendant believed that Ms. Smith supported her son, not the incumbent circuit clerk.” (emphasis added).
The question is whether these allegations, viewed in the light most favorable to Ms. Smith, state a First Amendment claim. I believe they do.
B.
“[P]olitical belief and association constitute the core of those activities protected by the First Amendment.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 356, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976) (plurality). For that reason, the Supreme Court has held that “the First Amendment prohibits the dismissal of a public employee solely because of [her] private political beliefs.” Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507, 516-17, 100 S.Ct. 1287, 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980). The First Amendment also “prohibits the firing of public employees solely for the reason that they [are] not affiliated with a particular political party or candidate.” Knight v. Vernon, 214 F.3d 544, 548 (4th Cir.2000) (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted). The only exception to the Elrod-Branti bar on politically motivated personnel decisions occurs when an employer “can demonstrate that party affiliation [or political allegiance] is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved.” Branti, 445 U.S. at 518, 100 S.Ct. 1287. Thus a public employer may discharge an employee because of her political beliefs or allegiance only if the employer “can demonstrate” that this is an “appropriate requirement” for the employee’s “public office.” Knight, 214 F.3d at 549 (citing Branti, 445 U.S. at 518, 100 S.Ct. 1287) (internal quotation marks omitted).
In this case, Ms. Smith has alleged that Judge Frye fired her “because [he] believed that [she] supported her son, not the incumbent circuit clerk” in the upcoming Republican primary.* Certainly, Ms. *276Smith could prove a “set of facts ... consistent with [this] allegation[ ]” that would entitle her to relief for a violation of her First Amendment rights. Hishon, 467 U.S. at 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229. For example, Ms. Smith could prove that Judge Frye dismissed her “because of [her] private political beliefs,” i.e., her support for a particular political candidate — her son. See Branti, 445 U.S. at 517,100 S.Ct. 1287. Or, she could prove that Judge Frye discharged her solely because she was not “affiliated with” a particular candidate, i.e., her son’s opponent — the incumbent circuit clerk. See id. In these situations, each consistent with the complaint, Judge Frye’s dismissal of Ms. Smith would be “substantially motivated by political considerations,” Sales v. Grant, 158 F.3d 768, 779 (4th Cir.1998), not justified by any “appropriate” job requirement, and so contrary to the First Amendment.
Of course, discovery might produce evidence that Judge Frye discharged Ms. Smith, as the majority posits, ante at 266, 270-71, to avoid disruption to the judicial system. Although Ms. Smith’s complaint states that the circuit clerk “does not have any supervisory or other direct employment relationship with the Magistrate Clerk,” discovery may reveal that the proper functioning of the judicial system required Ms. Smith and the incumbent circuit clerk to work closely together. If the evidence demonstrates that Judge Frye feared that Greg Smith’s candidacy would disrupt that relationship, he may well have violated no • constitutional provision in discharging Ms. Smith. However, no evidence yet supports this conclusion.
Similarly, although some clerks have purely ministerial and administrative duties, others make policy or enjoy a confidential relationship to their superiors, and as the majority acknowledges, ante at 268 n. 3, nothing in the record to date informs us as to which category Ms. Smith’s position belonged. If Ms. Smith’s duties were of the ministerial sort, her political beliefs and affiliations were plainly irrelevant to “effective performance” of her job. On the other hand, if discovery were to produce evidence indicating that Ms. Smith made policy, those beliefs might well be an “appropriate” job requirement.
But at this juncture there has been no discovery and so we have no basis for holding that her discharge can be justified. Rather, we must read the allegations in the complaint in the light most favorable to Ms. Smith; if that is done, she undoubtedly has alleged a cause of action under the First Amendment.
II.
I agree with the majority, however, that Ms. Smith has not alleged a violation of clearly established law. Our determination of whether law is clearly established “must be undertaken in light of the specific context of the ease, not as a broad general proposition.” Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). “[T]he right allegedly violated must be defined at the appropriate level of specificity before a court can determine if it was clearly established.” Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 615, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999). “[T]he focus is on whether the [official] had fair notice that [his] conduct was unlawful.” Brosseau v. Haugen, 543 U.S. 194, 198, 125 S.Ct. 596, 160 L.Ed.2d 583 (2004).
The most apposite Supreme Court cases, Elrod and Branti, address traditional political patronage practices quite unlike Ms. Smith’s allegations. And as the majority persuasively explains, our court and others have usually applied the First Amendment principles articulated in Elrod and Branti to patronage situations. See ante 268-70. *277Of course, there need not be a case directly on point for the law to be clearly established for qualified immunity purposes. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987); Buonocore v. Harris, 65 F.3d 347, 356-57 (4th Cir.1995). But Ms. Smith has not cited, and we have not found, a single case in which any court, prior to February 2004 (the date of Ms. Smith’s discharge), had recognized a claim similar to hers. That is, no court had allowed a claim that a discharge violated the First Amendment not because the employer was clearing positions for his own supporters or punishing an employee for her political activity, but because the employer was “angry” at the employee due to her relative’s candidacy and, absent any conduct on her part, because he “believed” that she supported her relative, “not the incumbent circuit clerk.”
This may be an unfair reason for firing Ms. Smith but, because she was an at-will employee, Judge Frye could fire her for no reason or any reason at all — except an unlawful reason. I believe that she has alleged facts sufficient to make out a claim that the firing was unlawful; but given the dearth of authority to that effect, I cannot conclude that Judge Frye was on “fair notice” of this. As such, Judge Frye is entitled to qualified immunity.
For this reason, I agree with the majority that we must uphold the dismissal of the complaint.

 Although the majority insists that it reads Ms. Smith's complaint "liberally,” ante at 267-68 n. 2, it clearly fails to do so. Thus the majority contends that the complaint fails because it does not allege "what Ms. Smith’s views or affiliation are or were." Id. In fact, as noted above, the complaint alleges that Judge Frye discharged Ms. Smith "because [he] believed that [she] supported her son, not the incumbent circuit clerk.” Read in the light most favorable to Ms. Smith, that allegation asserts both a “view” (that her son should be elected) and an “affiliation” (with her son’s candidacy). The majority also faults the complaint for its failure to allege that “Judge Frye was aware of [Ms. Smith's] beliefs or affiliation.” Id. But surely Ms. Smith's allegation that Judge Frye fired her because of what he “believed” her views and affiliation to be suffices. Judge Ftye may have been wrong about Ms. Smith’s beliefs or affiliation; but if he fired her for an unconstitutional reason she would still have a cause of action. “[A]lleged discrimination is no less malevolent because it was based on an erroneous assumption.” Estate of Amos ex rel. Amos v. City of Page, 257 F.3d 1086, 1094 (9th Cir.2001) (allowing claim that city discriminated against deceased because it believed he was Native, American, even though he was actually white). And even if Ms. Smith had to demonstrate that she actually did support her son, surely that fact “could be prove[n] consistent with the allegations” in the complaint. Hishon, 467 U.S. at 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229. When read in the best light for Ms. Smith, her complaint alleges that Judge Frye used the power of the state to punish Ms. Smith for her political affiliation and/or views. Rather than being "attenuated,” id., this claim sounds in the heart of the First Amendment. See West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943) (“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics ... or other matters of opinion....”).