Court Opinion

ID: 9474122
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:48:47.071058+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:55.098888
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
As to Shondel, I would reach the same result as the majority but by a somewhat different route. The “policymaker” exception to the ban on political firings was created because of the overriding governmental “need for political loyalty of employees ... to the end that representative government not be undercut by tactics obstructing the implementation of policies of the new administration, policies presumably sanctioned by the electorate.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 367, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 2686-87, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1975). If Kwolek was a policymaker, the Mayor was entitled to fire him because the Mayor had an overriding interest in having loyal employees heading his city departments. On the other hand, if Kwolek was a policy-maker and the Mayor fired. his apolitical stepdaughter — a receptionist — it is difficult to argue that this termination in any way advanced the asserted governmental interest in loyal policymaking employees. And if the firing did not advance that interest, then we have to readdress the question of Kwolek’s rights: he had no right to speak out and retain a job, but did he have a right to speak out and have an employed stepdaughter?
On this question Elrod would seem to require a new balancing. We would balance the individual First Amendment right against the governmental interest in merely permitting the Mayor to be vindictive, which on its face seems less than compelling. See Bart v. Telford, 677 F.2d 622 (7th Cir.1982). Hence, I am not at all sure that Shondel’s firing can be justified merely because Kwolek is a policymaker. If Kwolek were bringing this suit himself, asserting that his speech is chilled by a knife hanging over the heads of his family, Elrod might well compel the result that there was at least a question of fact whether the Mayor’s actions rose to the level of an actionable constitutional tort.
I think we need not reach this question here, however. Particularly since I believe it is undesirable to extend Elrod on the present facts, I would hold that Shondel has no standing to maintain this suit based on the violation of her stepfather’s constitutional rights.