Cop can pursue First Amendment suit based on demotion made in mistaken belief, SCOTUS says
A police officer who says he was demoted over his supervisor’s mistaken belief that he supported a mayoral challenger can sue for the alleged First Amendment violation, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-2 decision.
Government employees can’t be fired or demoted for engaging in constitutionally protected political activity. The factual mistake about the politics of Paterson, New Jersey, police officer Jeffrey Heffernan did not make a critical legal difference, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote (PDF) for the majority.
Heffernan had picked up a political sign for his bedridden mother, and other officers saw him at the campaign headquarters, Heffernan alleged in his complaint. Word of the visit spread, and Heffernan was demoted the next day.
A federal appeals court had ruled Heffernan didn’t engage in any First Amendment conduct, so the demotion did not deprive him of a constitutionally protected right. The Supreme Court disagreed.
“When an employer demotes an employee out of a desire to prevent the employee from engaging in political activity that the First Amendment protects,” Breyer wrote, “the employee is entitled to challenge that unlawful action under the First Amendment and 42 U. S. C. § 1983—even if, as here, the employer makes a factual mistake about the employee’s behavior.”
Breyer added that the ruling was based on the assumption that the police department’s policy violated the Constitution. There is some evidence, he wrote, that Heffernan was dismissed “pursuant to a different and neutral policy prohibiting police officers from overt involvement in any political campaign.”
Whether that policy existed, whether Heffernan’s supervisors were following it, and whether the policy was constitutional are all matters for lower courts to decide, Breyer said.
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented in a decision joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. “Federal law does not provide a cause of action to plaintiffs whose constitutional rights have not been violated,” Thomas wrote.
The case is Heffernan v. City of Paterson.
Related articles:
ABAJournal.com: “Cop demoted in mistaken belief he supported mayoral challenger wins Supreme Court review”
ABAJournal.com: “SCOTUS considers free-speech rights for officer demoted for presumed political views”
