United States Tenth Circuit

In an employment termination case brought by a former town attorney against the town's mayor, administrator, clerk, and one of its council members, denial of qualified immunity for defendants is reversed where: 1) neither a state statute, a town ordinance and resolution, nor an employment contract, provided plaintiff with a constitutionally protected property interest in continued public employment; 2) for purposes of a free speech claim, plaintiff's heated conversation with a town administrator did not enjoy First Amendment protection as it occurred pursuant to his official duties; and 3) defendants' eavesdropping on the conversation did not constitute an illegal search and seizure as he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his work-related, run-of-the-mill quarrel in his office.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/15/2008
• Published 09/16/2008

Judges

• McKAY, Circuit Judge., Before BRISCOE, McKAY, and LUCERO, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Richard Rideout, Cheyenne, WY, for Defendants-Appellants., Gary Shockey, Jackson, WY, for Plaintiff-Appellee.