Labor & Employment Law

Teacher looses first amendment claim, but there would be a cause of action if she was terminated because of her association with her husband

Teacher looses first amendment claim, but there would be a cause of action if she was terminated because of her association with her husband
Source: Adjunct Law Prof Blog; http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/

Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2008, Mitchell H. Rubinstein, Esq., Adjunct Professor of Law, St. Johns Law School and New York Law School, All rights reserved.

Wingate v. Gage County School Dist., __F.3d___(8th Cir. June 16, 2008), provides a nice primer on basic First Amendment and Freedom of Association law. The teacher lost her First Amendment claim because her complaints about not being paid as a FT teacher, her unsuccessful FT applications, her request for an explanation and her meeting with a member of the school board to complain were not matters of "public concern."

Her Freedom of Association claim was that the she was not hired because of her husband. Her husband had been dismissed as a teacher and filed complaints against the principal. The court held that the Constitution would protect this relationship, but the plaintiff presented no evidence proving that her husband was a substantial and motivating factor in the defendants failure to hire.

The plaintiff also had an ADEA case which was dismissed.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).