Court Opinion

ID: 9465325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:43:05.147337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:06.884766
License: Public Domain

BOWNES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I dissent. While I do not quarrel with my learned brother’s historical exegesis of federalism, his opinion sweeps with too broad a brush.
The complaint was dismissed for failure to state a cause of action. While the complaint is inartfully drawn and does not allege clearly what constitutional rights are implicated, we are bound to construe it, as was the district court, so as to do substantial justice. Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(f). The complaint alleges: that plaintiffs-appellants were nonpolicy making employees in the Registry of Deeds for the County of Essex, Massachusetts; that they were fired shortly *858after defendant-appellee took office as the newly elected Register of Deeds; that their proposed replacements were close political supporters of the appellee; that appellants did not actively support appellee; and that the reason given for the firing, i. e., unsatisfactory job performance, was groundless.
These allegations would seem to be encompassed in the question presented in Elrod as framed by Mr. Justice Brennan.
This case presents the question whether public employees who allege that they were discharged or threatened with discharge solely because of their partisan political affiliation or nonaffiliation state a claim for deprivation of constitutional rights secured by the First and Fourteenth Amendments (emphasis added).
Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 349, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 2678, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976). There can be little doubt that, if appellants had campaigned actively for appellee’s opponent instead of remaining politically neutral, Elrod would apply and appellants’ jobs would be protected. Perhaps time will show that Elrod should be confined to its facts, but it is difficult now to trace its exact contours and implications. See Patronage and the First Amendment After Elrod v. Burns, 78 Colum.L.Rev. 468 (1978). As Mr. Justice Stewart noted in his separate concurrence, “This case does not require us to consider the broad contours of the so-called patronage system, with all its variations and permutations.” Id. at 374, 96 S.Ct. at 2690.
I am unwilling to hold that Elrod and “the established principles of federalism” require a dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a cause of action. It may be, after the facts have been established, that a ruling should issue that Elrod does not apply, but a decision involving constitutional rights should not be made in a vacuum. I would reverse and remand for a hearing so that the facts could be fully developed.