Court Opinion

ID: 9849356
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:38:52.498936+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:19.054012
License: Public Domain

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
Contrary to the analysis in the lead opinion, I believe that the writing in question constitutes protected speech under Tinker and that the defendants have failed to carry their burden of “demonstrat[ing] any facts which might reasonably have led school authorities to forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.” See Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 514, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969) (“In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint.”). The student-athletes in the present case, in my opinion, have thus properly asserted a constitutional violation.
But what I find most troubling about the lead opinion’s analysis is that it significantly alters First Amendment jurisprudence by grafting the public-concern requirement of Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983), onto the Tinker test, an approach never before taken in student-speech cases by either the Supreme Court or any other federal court of appeals to consider the issue. Moreover, the Supreme Court recently had an opportunity to overrule or otherwise alter Tinker, but explicitly declined to do so in a way that would affect the outcome of the present case. See Morse v. Frederick, — U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2618, 2622, 168 L.Ed.2d 290 (2007) (h olding that “a [high school] principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use”). I nonetheless concur in the judgment because I believe that the First Amendment right as applied to the particular circumstances in this case was not so clearly established at the time of the alleged violation as to deprive the defendants of qualified immunity.
I. The lead opinion’s application of Connick in a student-speech case is unprecedented
Although the lead opinion purports to apply Tinker, what it actually applies is the public-concern test announced by the Supreme Court in Connick. The Ninth Circuit rejected this very approach in Pinard v. Clatskanie School District 6J, 467 F.3d 755 (9th Cir.2006), and I do not think that we should consider it here. See Pinard, 467 F.3d at 766 (“Although Con-nick’s personal matter/public concern distinction is the appropriate mechanism for determining the parameters of a public employer’s need to regulate the workplace, neither we, the Supreme Court nor any other federal court of appeals has held such a distinction applicable in student speech cases, and we decline to do so here.”). I see no justification for grafting this requirement onto Tinker in the absence of Supreme Court caselaw instructing us to do so. Tinker has been in force for several decades now, and the Supreme Court’s recent holding in Morse does nothing to undercut its application to the facts of the present case.
*602The lead opinion states that “[t]he key to understanding Connick and the instant case is that neither case is fundamentally about the right to express one’s opinion, but rather the ability of the government to set restrictions on voluntary programs it administers.” Lead Op. at 599. It goes on to state that “the First Amendment does not guarantee that there will be no losers in intra-office politics.” Id. That may be true as a general proposition, but the fact remains that government employees and high school athletes are not similarly situated, despite the lead opinion’s analysis to the contrary. Whether we think that “student athletes have greater similarities to government employees than the general student body,” Lead Op. at 597, is not determinative. What is determinative is that they are not similarly situated under existing caselaw. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has specifically given us one test for students and another test for public employees.
Applying Connick to the present case seems especially inappropriate given the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Morse. In Morse, a high school senior unfurled a banner bearing the phrase “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS” across the street from his school while watching the Olympic Torch Relay pass through town. Morse, 127 S.Ct. at 2622. The viewing of the relay was a school-sanctioned event. Id. Because the principal thought that the banner promoted illegal drug use, she asked the student to take it down, but the student refused. Id. The student was suspended as a result, and he subsequently sued the school, alleging that the school had violated his First Amendment rights. Id. at 2623.
Morse gave the Supreme Court an opportunity to revisit Tinker and, had Justice Thomas’s view carried the day, to overrule it. See Morse, 127 S.Ct. at 2630 (Thomas, J., concurring) (writing separately to state his “view that the standard set forth in [Tinker ] is without basis in the Constitution”). But the majority did not go that far, confirming only that “the rule of Tinker is not the only basis for restricting student speech.” Id. at 2627. The Court’s holding was a narrow one — namely, that “a principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.” Id. at 2622. And in reaching this holding, the Court emphasized the “important — indeed, perhaps compelling” interest in deterring drug use among schoolchildren. Id. at 2628.
Given the facts of Morse, the Supreme Court could well have chosen to add a public-concern requirement to the traditional Tinker analysis, but it did not do so. The school superintendent’s administrative decision in Morse highlighted the fact that the student’s speech was not political or espousing a religious viewpoint, but instead was “a fairly silly message promoting illegal drug usage in the midst of a school activity.” Id. at 2623. But the Court did not depend on this fact in its analysis. Nor did it undercut the force of Tinker in a way that has application to the facts of the present case. Justice Alito’s concurrence suggests just the opposite. See id. at 2638 (Alito, J., concurring) (writing separately to emphasize the special dangers of illegal drug use as grounds for greater regulation of student speech, but joining the majority opinion only “with the understanding that the opinion does not endorse any further extension” of speech restrictions in public schools).
Vague notions of “teamwork” and “unity” are simply not compelling school interests in the way that the prevention of illegal drug use is. Nothing in Morse suggests that anything other than a standard Tinker analysis is appropriate in the *603present case, and Justice Alito’s concurrence explicitly suggests otherwise. See id. (“But I do. not read the opinion to mean that there are necessarily any grounds for such regulation that are not already recognized in the holdings of this Court”). I therefore would not alter First Amendment jurisprudence in the way that the lead opinion does.
II. The school has not met its burden under Tinker
To be sure, students do not have a general constitutional right to participate in extracurricular activities. Lead Op. at 588. But that is not the- issue here. Neither is whether “conflict between a player and the coach can shake ‘the very foundation of team chemistry,’ ” Lead Op. at 595, nor whether “coaches are entitled to respect from their players,” Lead Op. at 594. Although both of these statements might well be true, neither presents a legal question. The issue in the present case is whether, under Tinker, the students’ petition was protected speech. If it was, then the coach would have been within his rights to kick them off the team if, and only if, the school had “demonstrate[d] any facts which might reasonably have led school authorities to forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.” Tinker, 393 U.S. at 514, 89 S.Ct. 733; Pinard, 467 F.3d at 768 (stating that, under Tinker, “the defendants must justify their decision to suspend the players permanently” by showing such facts).
The lead opinion is undeniably correct in stating that the school is not required to wait for an actual disruption before acting, nor must the school be certain that a disruption would occur. Lead Op. at 593. It gives lip service to the correct standard under Tinker — that the forecast of substantial disruption be reasonable — but then fails to apply the standard correctly. Instead, it improperly places the burden on the students to prove that there would not have been a disruption. This is simply not the test articulated in Tinker. The school bears the burden of demonstrating sufficient facts to support its forecast of substantial disruption. See id. at 514, 89 S.Ct. 733. It has not done so here.
Nor do I see in the record any claim by the defendants that the petition was disruptive in and of itself. What the record does contain is one player’s opinion that “a situation where players said they hated the coach and didn’t want to play for him would have a substantially negative effect on a football team,” and an assistánt coach who testified that, in his opinion, “a group of players saying they hated the coach could definitely break apart a team.” Lead Op. at 593. At most, the defendants have asserted a generalized fear of disruption to team unity based on the students’ critical opinion of Euverard’s ability as a coach. This is simply not enough to meet the “substantial disruption” standard of Tinker. See Tinker, 393 U.S. at 511, 89 S.Ct. 733 (“[S]ehool officials cannot suppress expressions of feelings with which they do not wish to contend.”) (quotation marks omitted); Seamons v. Snow, 206 F.3d 1021, 1030 (10th Cir.2000) (“[Cjoaches may not penalize players for engaging in peaceful speech activity which does not create substantial disorder, materially disrupt class work, or invade the rights of others.”).
Moreover, a review of the record shows that there was no possibility of disruption or interference, nor did the players intend that there be one, until Euvérard found out about the petition, became upset, and decided to “smoke out” the culprits and dismiss them from the team. There are no facts in the record suggesting that any disruption could have been reasonably *604forecast. The plaintiffs had no intention of quitting the team and were not otherwise “problem” players. Euverard did not even find out about the petition until one of the other players, who is not a party in this case, informed one of the assistant coaches.
III. The Ninth Circuit’s analysis in Pi-nard is persuasive
In my view, the facts of the present case are closer to those in Pinard v. Clatskanie School District 6J, 467 F.3d 755 (9th Cir.2006), than to those in Wildman ex rel. Wildman v. Marshalltown School District, 249 F.3d 768 (8th Cir.2001), the latter case being the one relied upon by the lead opinion. Moreover, I believe that Pinard persuasively explains why the lead opinion’s reliance on Connick is misplaced.
The lead opinion argues that the “crucial distinction” distinguishing Pinard from the present case is that “the coach in Pinard voluntarily put his authority into play, so to speak” by telling the players that if they wanted him to quit, that he would do so. Lead Op. at 591. I disagree that Pinard can be so easily distinguished on this basis. The Ninth Circuit certainly did not rely on this point in concluding that the petition was protected under the First Amendment. Pinard, 467 F.3d at 768-69. As in the present case, the Pinard plaintiffs alleged that the coach had engaged in abusive and intimidating behavior toward the players. Id. at 760. The players, after a team meeting where the coach “told the players that if they wanted him to quit, they should say so, and he would resign,” signed a typewritten petition asking the coach to resign. Id. All players but one (the coach’s son) signed the petition. Id. at 761.
Arguably the petition in Pinard exhibited even greater insubordination than the one in the present case, because the cocap-tains of the team in that case presented the petition directly to the coach himself in the middle of the season. Id. at 761. In contrast, Lowery and the other students here had no intention of presenting the petition until after the football season had ended. Nor did any of the students themselves actually present the petition to any teacher or coach. For purposes of summary judgment, we must consider these facts in the light most favorable to Lowery and his fellow plaintiffs. See Spirit Airlines, Inc. v. Nw. Airlines, Inc., 431 F.3d 917, 930 (6th Cir.2005) (noting, in reviewing a district court’s grant of summary judgment, that “[w]e must also consider all facts in the light most favorable to the non-movant and must give the non-movant the benefit of every reasonable inference”) (quotation marks omitted).
I further disagree with the lead opinion’s reliance on Wildman. The Wildman court cited the governing standard both from Tinker and from Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 106 S.Ct. 3159, 92 L.Ed.2d 549 (1986), the latter governing vulgar, lewd, obscene, or plainly offensive speech. A review of the Wildman opinion does not reveal which standard the Eighth Circuit used in its analysis. What it does reveal is that the court there focused on the alleged insubordinate nature of the speech, coupled with the conclusory statement that “coaches deserve a modicum of respect from athletes, particularly in an academic setting.” Wildman, 249 F.3d at 772. It also implied that had Wildman’s speech been on a more important topic, that it may have been protected under either framework. See id. (“Here, in an athletic context [dejvoid of the egregious conduct which spurred the football player’s speech about the hazing incident in Seamons [v. Snow, 206 F.3d 1021 (10th Cir.2000) ], and where Wild-man’s speech called for an apology, no *605basis exists for a claim of a violation of free speech.”).
The problem with the Eighth Circuit’s analysis as applied to the present case is that it improperly makes a value judgment on the speech itself, something that is not part of the Tinker analysis. As the plaintiffs here correctly point out, viewpoint discrimination is simply not tolerated under Tinker. But this is precisely the effect of the lead opinion’s statement that “a coach could not dismiss a player simply because the player had religious or political views that were unpopular with teammates.” Lead Op. at 600. In a pure speech case such as the present one, such a value judgment is inappropriate in the absence of extenuating circumstances, such as a school’s commitment to combating illegal drug use. See Tinker, 393 U.S. at 505-06, 89 S.Ct. 733 (noting that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that “pure speech ... is entitled to comprehensive protection under the First Amendment”) (quotation marks omitted); Morse, 127 S.Ct. at 2629 (holding that the “First Amendment does not require schools to tolerate at school events student expression” that could be reasonably construed as promoting illegal drug use, but emphasizing the holding as inextricably entwined with the school’s policy against drug use).
There is no disputing the fact that “student athletes are subject to more restrictions than the student body at large.” Lead Op. at 589 (citing Vernonia Sch. Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646, 115 S.Ct. 2386, 132 L.Ed.2d 564 (1995)). And “[b]y choosing to ‘go out for the team,’ [student-athletes] voluntarily subject themselves to a degree of regulation even higher than that imposed on students generally.” Id. at 657, 115 S.Ct. 2386. At the same time, however, a student-athlete does not, as suggested by the lead opinion, enjoy fewer First Amendment rights under Tinker because of his or her choice to participate in high school athletics. Lead Op. at 588-90. The examples given by the Court in Ver-nonia of increased regulation over student-athletes — submitting to a preseason physical exam, acquiring adequate insurance coverage, signing an insurance waiver, maintaining a minimum grade point average, and complying with rules of conduct, dress, or training hours, Vernonia, 515 U.S. at 657, 115 S.Ct. 2386—do not support a similar restriction on free-speech rights.
In sum, we need look no further than the now-famous language from Tinker to guide the analysis in this case:
A student’s rights, therefore, do not embrace merely the classroom hours. When he is in the cafeteria, or on the playing field, or on the campus during the authorized hours, he may express his opinions, even on controversial subjects like the conflict in Vietnam, if he does so without materially and substantially interfering with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school....
Tinker, 393 U.S. at 512-13, 89 S.Ct. 733 (emphasis added) (parentheses and quotation marks omitted). The football players in this case expressed their opinion about them coach by signing a petition. At least half of the team signed it, Nothing else happened until Euverard found out, became upset, and retaliated against the instigators who dared to question his abilities as a coach. For the reasons explained above, I think that this case bears remarkable similarity to Pinard and that there was a violation of the student-athletes’ First Amendment rights under Tinker.
IV. Qualified immunity
A finding of a constitutional violation, however, is but the first step in the qualified-immunity analysis. As the lead opin*606ion explains, that right must also be clearly established at the time of the violation. Lead Op. at 587. “A right is ‘clearly established’ for qualified immunity purposes when the contours of the right are sufficiently clear, even if the specific action in question has never been held unlawful.” Smoak v. Hall, 460 F.3d 768, 778 (6th Cir.2006). Preexisting law need not, however, “address the very question at hand.” Logsdon v. Hains, 492 F.3d 334, 343 (6th Cir.2007). The relevant inquiry in this case is whether Euverard should have clearly realized “that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted.” See Smoak, 460 F.3d at 768.
Tinker, of course, has been the law since 1969, protecting the general right of students to exercise free speech while in school. There is no caselaw in this circuit, however, applying Tinker to student-athletes and defining the contours of their First Amendment rights. For this reason, I do not believe that the contours of the right were sufficiently clear to put Euver-ard on notice that his action in response to the petition was a violation of the First Amendment. See Seal v. Morgan, 229 F.3d 567, 581 (6th Cir.2000) (holding that a school superintendent was entitled to qualified immunity where the contours of the constitutional right were not “sufficiently clear to put a reasonable school superintendent on notice in 1996 that a school disciplinary policy’s lack of a conscious-possession[-of-a-weapon] requirement could produce irrational expulsions and thus violate the legal rights of students expelled under the policy”).
The plaintiffs, moreover, have presented nothing to overcome their burden of showing that Euverard should be denied qualified immunity. See Smoak, 460 F.3d at 778 (“Throughout the analysis, the burden is on the [plaintiffs] to show that the defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity.”). I therefore concur in the judgment, despite what I believe is the lead opinion’s erroneous refusal to recognize the constitutional right at issue.