“Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.” Economist Milton Friedman.
The Federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the former Chief Deputy Clerk of Saline County, AK, who claimed that her termination based on political affiliation violated her First Amendment right of free expression.
It Was Nothing Personal, Just Politics
The Chief Deputy Clerk is appointed by the Circuit Clerk, an elected official. Patricia DePriest had been Chief Deputy Clerk since 2002 and supported the incumbent Circuit Clerk, Doug Kidd, in the latest election. However, Kidd lost to Dennis Milligan, who then decided to hire a political operative to replace DePriest because he wanted to transition the Chief Deputy Clerk position from its administrative role to more of a chief-of-staff. DePriest sued for violation of the First Amendment and for sex discrimination under Title VII.
The Appeals Court explained that in public employment, termination based on political affiliation is permissible where it can be shown that political affiliation is an appropriate requirement. The Court then ruled: “In general, personal loyalty is ‘an appropriate requirement’ where the individual ‘reports directly to the [chief executive] and his duties include public relations and responsibility for long-range planning.” Since Milligan wanted his Chief Deputy Clerk to provide advice, to be available at all times, and to speak on Milligan’s behalf at public events, it was appropriate for him to require personal and political loyalty in that job. As such, it was appropriate to consider political affiliation in filling DePriest’s job and the First Amendment claim was therefore dismissed.
You Can’t Lose If You Don’t Play
The sex discrimination claim was based on the contention that as a twenty-year employee, DePriest was better qualified for the position than the man that Milligan selected. Therefore, it must have been sex discrimination when she was ousted from the Chief Deputy Clerk position, not offered another position in the office and not selected for a newly vacant position some time later. The Appeals Court disagreed and dismissed the discrimination claim, noting first that there was no evidence that her dismissal from the Chief Deputy Clerk position was gender-based. They then explained that DePriest could not have been discriminatorily denied the other vacancies since she had not actually applied for any of those jobs.
Bottom Line
Public officials can appoint their own team where loyalty and political affiliation are important to the job. Depending on what happens in the November elections, we may see this principle in action quite a bit in the next year or so.