explaining these are rare situations when constitutional provision is “so clear and the conduct so bad that case law is not needed to establish that the conduct cannot be lawful” (citation omitted)
How later courts described this case
- explaining these are rare situations when constitutional provision is “so clear and the conduct so bad that case law is not needed to establish that the conduct cannot be lawful” (citation omitted)
- granting qualified immunity to Superin- tendent of school district, ruling that any prohibition against de- fendant denying teacher a promotion based on a family member’s public criticisms of the school district was based on “First Amend- ment principles at a high level of generality” and, thus, not clearly established
- holding that, for purposes of qualified immunity, it is the plaintiff’s burden to show 22 that the defendant violated a constitutional right that was clearly established
- holding that, for purposes of qualified immunity, it is the plaintiff’s burden to show that the defendant violated a constitutional right that was clearly established
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
JORDAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In my view, the constitutional right to freedom of intimate association, whether seen as a pure or hybrid First Amendment right, see Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 618-20 , 104 S.Ct. 3244 , 82 L.Ed.2d 462 (1984), protects a public employee from adverse treatment based on the speech of a close relative or family member. See Adler v. Pataki, 185 F.3d 35 , 41-45 (2nd Cir. 1999); Adkins v. Bd. of Education, 982 F.2d 952 , 955-56 (6th Cir. *1215 1993); Lewis v. Eufaula City Bd. of Education, 922 F.Supp.2d 1291, 1302-03 (M.D. Ala. 2012). See also Collin O’Connor Udell, Intimate Association: Resurrecting a Hybrid Right, 7 Tex. J. Women & Law 231, 284-85 (1998). Nevertheless, I concur in the court’s opinion and qualified immunity-analysis because no cases from the Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, or the Alabama Supreme Court have so far come to that conclusion.