Court Opinion

ID: 9562401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:28:04.928078+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:19.988086
License: Public Domain

FROST, Justice, specially concurring. I specially concur with the majority opinion. I do so because I do not believe the opinion should address the issue of whether or not Daddow had a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 (1988). ■ The opinion holds that she was given due process with regard to her termination. A consideration and discussion of the applicability of § 1983 actions to school districts is therefore unnecessary. Resolution of this issue should await a proceeding wherein it must necessarily be decided after adequate briefing and possibly oral argument. I concur in parts II, III, IV, and V of the majority opinion and in the affirmance of the trial court’s decision. I. The Majority Unnecessarily Reinterprets U.S. Supreme Court Precedent. The majority opinion is almost entirely devoted to an unnecessary examination of whether the term “person” as used in § 1983 includes local school boards.1 In the first prong of its analysis under Part I, the majority reinterprets the U.S. Supreme Court cases that defined the scope of the term “person.” The majority concludes that the analysis of what is a “person” under § 1983 is different from the analysis of what is deemed not to be an “arm of the state” for purposes of the Eleventh Amendment. The majority finds that the Supreme Court eases establish a “presumption” that a local school board is a “person” under •§ 1983 unless there is “conclusive evidence that [it] is legally only a state agency subject to a state’s control.” Majority Opinion at 100, 898 P.2d at 1238. According to the majority, this evaluation of the status of a school board does not require a determination of the board’s status under the Eleventh Amendment although Eleventh Amendment considerations provide some guidance. Id. However, a straightforward analysis of the relevant cases defining “person” suggests otherwise. Contrary to the majority’s conclusion, the relevant Supreme Court cases hold that the status of a local school board under § 1983 is conclusively determined by its status under an Eleventh Amendment “arm of the state” analysis. Unfortunately, the majority’s 'unique interpretation of the scope of the term “person” under § 1983, which is unnecessary for the holding of the opinion, places us in direct conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings and fails to follow the standard approach to § 1983 claims. A. Monell Applies to Local Governing Bodies that are not Arms of the State. In Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 662, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2021, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the question of whether the New York City board of education was a “person” within the meaning of § 1983. After analyzing the statutory history of § 1983, the Court concluded that local governing bodies were “persons” under § 1983 and, accordingly, could be sued. Id. at 690, 98 S.Ct. at 2035-36. However, the Court explicitly limited the reach of its holding, noting, “Our holding today is, of course, limited to local government units which are not considered part of the State for Eleventh Amendment purposes.” Id at 690 n. 54, 98 S.Ct. at 2035 n. 54; see also id. at 690 n. 55, 98 S.Ct. at 2036 n. 55 (limiting its analysis to actions “where Eleventh Amendment considerations do not control [the] analysis”); id. at 695, 98 S.Ct. at 2038 (“[W]e have no occasion to address, and do not address, what the full contours of municipal liability under § 1983 may be.”). In fact, even though this case was initiated in federal court, and would ordinarily require an Eleventh Amendment immunity analysis, the Court did not consider whether the local school board was entitled to immunity from suit under the Eleventh Amendment. Instead, the Court operated under the assumption that it lacked immunity. Id. at 690 n. 54, 98 S.Ct. at 2035 n. 54. B. Will Applies to Local Governing Bodies that are Arms of the State. The U.S. Supreme Court next addressed whether the term “person” included the states in Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989). The Court concluded that the term “person” did not encompass the states, primarily based on Eleventh Amendment considerations. Id. at 66-67, 109 S.Ct. at 2309-10. The Court noted that the Eleventh Amendment granted the states immunity from suit in federal court, and that Congress would not have intended to revoke this constitutionally granted immunity unless it expressly exercised its power to do so under the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. at 66, 109 S.Ct. at 2309-10. Accordingly, it concluded that the definition of “person” did not include the states, so as to conform with the principles of the Eleventh Amendment. However, the § 1983 suit at issue in Will was originally brought in state court where the Eleventh Amendment did not apply. Id. at 60, 109 S.Ct. at 2306. The Court concluded that Congress did not intend for § 1983, a remedial federal statute, to create a cause of action against a state in state courts while denying a parallel cause of action in federal courts. Id. at 66, 109 S.Ct. at 2309-10. Accordingly, the Court held that although the Eleventh Amendment did not apply in state courts, the Eleventh Amendment considerations that limit the definition of “person” in federal courts also apply to limit the definition of “person” in state courts. Id. Indeed, once the Court held that Eleventh Amendment considerations inform the statutory definition of “person” in federal eases, its application of Eleventh Amendment considerations in state court § 1983 claims was logically necessary to prevent the term “person” from having different meanings in state and federal court. Furthermore, the Will Court concluded that the immunity that states enjoyed under § 1983 also extended to state officials sued in their official capacity. Id. at 71, 109 S.Ct. at 2312. This conclusion was a logical extension of the limitation on § 1983 suits against states. A party should not be able to indirectly accomplish what it could not do directly, namely, force the state to pay a § 1983 judgment brought against a state official. See Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 166-70, 105 S.Ct. 3099, 3105-08, 87 L.Ed.2d 114 (1985) (overturning a § 1983 damages award against a state official acting in his official capacity in which the state was forced to pay the judgment). The Will Court also extended its analysis to governmental bodies that are arms of the state, as defined by the Eleventh Amendment, for the same reason. Will, 491 U.S. at 70, 109 S.Ct. at 2311-12. Therefore, a straightforward reading of Will indicates that in order to determine whether a governmental body is a “person” under § 1983, we must consider whether the body is an arm of the state for Eleventh Amendment purposes. C. The Majority Misinterprets the Will and Monell Cases and Needlessly Complicates the § 1983 Analysis. The majority opinion, however, finds a conflict between Will and Monell where none exists. It points to language in Will where the Court noted that the scope of § 1983 and the scope of the Eleventh Amendment are separate issues. Majority Opinion at 101, 898 P.2d at 1239. The majority opinion also points to the fact that Will did not overrule Monell's holding that a local school board was a “person” under § 1983. The majority then attempts to “harmonize” Will and Monell by redefining the term “arm of the state” used in Will to mean an entity that is not “a local governing body with specific discretionary powers and duties.” Majority Opinion at 101. Thus, the majority opinion concludes that Monell controls the present case, and holds that local boards are presumed to be “persons” under § 1983 as distinct from the question of whether they are arms of the state under the Eleventh Amendment. However, the Court in Will noted that the holding in Monell was expressly limited to governing bodies that were not arms of the state for Eleventh Amendment purposes, and held that the rule established in Will applied to governmental entities that were arms of the state under the Eleventh Amendment. Will, 491 U.S. at 70, 109 S.Ct. at 2311-12. Accordingly, the two cases do not conflict. Under Monell, governing bodies that are not arms of the state are “persons” under § 1983, and under Will, states, state actors sued in their official capacity, and arms of the state are not “persons” under § 1983. As for the language cited by the majority, the statements about the difference in scope of § 1983 and the Eleventh Amendment did not negate the fact that Eleventh Amendment considerations served as the primary basis for the Court’s interpretation of the term “person.” Id. at 66-67, 109 S.Ct. at 2309-10. In addition, this statement could just as easily be interpreted as an acknowledgement that § 1983 and the Eleventh Amendment have different applications; § 1983 applies in all forums, whereas the Eleventh Amendment only applies in federal courts, and Eleventh Amendment immunity may be waived by the states, whereas § 1983’s immunity is definitional, and may not be waived. The majority opinion also appears to suggest that not only is the examination of whether a local board is a “person” under § 1983 different from that conducted under the Eleventh Amendment, but that the § 1983 analysis will affect the board’s immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. It notes that if the local board is not a “true ‘arm of the state’ ” under the Monell § 1983 analysis, it “is not entitled to the state’s Eleventh Amendment protections.” Majority Opinion at 102, 898 P.2d at 1240. The majority then notes that Martinez failed to consider whether a local board was a “person” under § 1983 before examining whether it was immune from suit in federal court under the Eleventh Amendment. This argument, however, stands the traditional approach to the Eleventh Amendment on its head. The Eleventh Amendment presents a jurisdictional question of whether the federal court is a proper forum to hear a claim against a particular defendant. Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 99 n. 8, 104 S.Ct. 900, 907 n. 8, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984). If the defendant is an arm of the state, the federal courts lack jurisdiction to hear the claim. Since the Will Court explicitly noted that Congress did not intend to revoke or alter a state’s Eleventh Amendment immunity by enacting § 1983, Will, 491 U.S. at 66, 109 S.Ct. at 2309-10, there was no reason for the Martinez court to consider a school board’s status under § 1983 in determining whether it was immune from suit in federal court. In suggesting otherwise, the majority substitutes its own unique interpretation of the interplay of the Eleventh Amendment and § 1983 which is contrary to the clear dictates of the Supreme Court. D. The Howlett Case Supports the Straightforward Approach to § 1983 Using an Eleventh Amendment Analysis. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court removed any lingering doubt over the proper interpretation of the Will decision in Howlett v. Rose, 496 U.S. 356, 365, 110 S.Ct. 2430, 2436-37, 110 L.Ed.2d 332 (1990). In Howlett, the Court explicitly stated, “As we held last Term in [Will ], an entity with Eleventh Amendment immunity is not a ‘person’ within the meaning of § 1983.” The Court continued, “Will establishes that the State and arms of the State, which have traditionally enjoyed Eleventh Amendment immunity, are not subject to suit under § 1983 in either federal court or state court.” Id. (emphasis added). Thus, the Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that the term “person” does not include arms of the state and that the first step in determining whether a governmental entity may be sued under § 1983 is to examine whether it is an arm of the state under an Eleventh Amendment analysis, as set out in Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 280, 97 S.Ct. 568, 572-73, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977). The majority suggests that the Howlett opinion implies that Eleventh Amendment immunity “does not apply to a political subdivision in a § 1983 action.” Majority Opinion at 103, 898 P.2d at 1241. Thus, the majority seems to be arguing that § 1983 automatically revoked any Eleventh Amendment immunity for “political subdivisions” regardless of their status as arms of the state as determined under Mt. Healthy. However, the § 1983 claim in Howlett was initiated in state court and therefore did not raise any Eleventh Amendment issue, nor did the Supreme Court even address the Eleventh Amendment in Howlett. What the Supreme Court did do in Howlett, however, was expressly reaffirm its holding in Will which directly contradicts the majority’s suggestion that the Eleventh Amendment does not always apply in § 1983 cases. In addition, the Howlett Court explicitly noted that the reason it was not addressing the question of whether the school board was an arm of the state for § 1983 purposes was because respondents did not raise that issue in its brief in opposition to the petition for certiorari. Howlett, 496 U.S. at 381 n. 24, 110 S.Ct. at 2445 n. 24. Therefore, the Court did not need to analyze whether or not the local school board fell within the class of governmental bodies found to be arms of the state under the Eleventh Amendment, and instead, simply assumed that the board was a “person” for § 1983 purposes because it had waived its immunity argument. Unfortunately, the majority’s interpretation of the Monell, Will, and Howlett opinions, addressing an issue which need not have been reached by this Court, sets us squarely at odds with the clear intent of the Supreme Court as well as the interpretation adopted by state courts that have considered the issue. See, e.g., Town of Lake Clarke Shores v. Page, 569 So.2d 1256, 1257 (Fla. 1990) (noting that Will requires a municipality not to be an arm of the state as defined by Mt. Healthy); Livingood v. Meece, 477 N.W.2d 183, 190 (N.D.1991) (“It is now settled that neither a state, an entity with eleventh amendment immunity, nor a state official sued in his or her official capacity, is a ‘person’ within the meaning of § 1983____”); Williams v. State, 156 Vt. 42, 589 A.2d 840, 844 (1990) (noting that arms of the state with Eleventh Amendment immunity are not “persons” under § 1983); Board of Trustees v. Landry, 638 N.E.2d 1261, 1264 (Ind.Ct. App.1994) (applying Eleventh Amendment analysis to determine immunity under § 1983); National Camera, Inc. v. Sanchez, 832 P.2d 960, 960 (Colo.Ct.App.1991) (“[S]tates and arms of the state, which have traditionally enjoyed Eleventh Amendment immunity, are not ‘persons’ within the meaning of § 1983.”); C.J. v. Vuinovich, 252 N.J.Super. 122, 599 A.2d 548, 553 (Ct.App. Div.1991) (same idea). Accordingly, because the first prong of the majority opinion is unnecessary to our holding in this case and places us squarely against the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation as well as that of our sister states, I strongly believe we should not have addressed the issue of the scope and interpretation of Monell and Will. II. The Majority Unnecessary Reexamines Local School Boards’ “Arm of the State” Status. In the second prong of its § 1983 analysis (Part I.D.2) the majority reexamines whether New Mexico’s local school boards are in fact arms of the state as defined by Mt. Healthy. This question, however, has already been addressed by the Tenth Circuit in Martinez v. Board of Education, 748 F.2d 1393, 1396 (10th Cir.1984), and answered in the affirmative. See also Garcia v. Board of Educ., 777 F.2d 1403, 1407 (10th Cir.1985) (following Martinez). The majority opinion criticizes Martinez for misapplying the Mt. Healthy factors and conducts its own analysis of the federal statute, reaching the opposite conclusion. Once again, this question about the status of local school boards under the Eleventh Amendment need not have been addressed by this Court in reaching its conclusion. However, in conducting its own analysis, the majority unnecessarily places us in conflict with the Tenth Circuit and raises the possibility that a federal claim could successfully be brought in state court which would otherwise fail in federal court. Furthermore, the recent opinion, Ambus v. Granite Board of Education, 995 F.2d 992, 994 (10th Cir.1993) (overruling prior opinion holding Utah school board was an arm of the state), indicates that the Tenth Circuit may be rethinking its previous analysis of the Mt. Healthy factors. Compare id. with Martinez, 748 F.2d at 1396 and Garcia, 777 F.2d at 1411 (McKay, J., dissenting). Accordingly, until the question of the proper application of § 1983, a federal statute, is squarely before us, we should allow the Tenth Circuit to resolve the issues addressed by the majority. III. Conclusion. As the majority correctly points out in the second part of its opinion, Daddow in fact received due process. The trial court found that the District offered Daddow a post-termination hearing, as well as opportunities to address the allegations prior to termination. These findings were not challenged on appeal. Since it is uncontroverted that there was no constitutional violation to serve as the basis for a § 1983 claim, we need not decide whether Daddow could have brought a § 1983 action against the school district had there been a constitutional violation. Given the complexity of the issues involved, the limited briefing of those issues, and the potential conflicts created by the majority’s approach, I believe this court should not have reached the issue of interpreting § 1983. This issue is best left for a future proceeding in which it must necessarily be decided and where the Court has the benefit of thorough briefing and argumentation. The fact that the majority failed to follow the straightforward approach set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in Will is indicative of the dangers in reaching issues not necessary for the opinion. Accordingly, I concur only in parts II, III, IV, and V, and in the affirmance of the trial court’s decision. BACA, C.J., concurs.  . The relevant portions of § 1983 are set out in the majority opinion. See Majority Opinion at 99, 898 P.2d at 1237.