United States Second Circuit

In an action claiming that defendants, who were employees of the New York State Thruway Authority, violated plaintiff's rights under the First Amendment by initiating disciplinary proceedings against her resulting in her demotion, a denial of summary judgment for defendants based on qualified immunity is reversed where: 1) the conduct that resulted in plaintiff's demotion did not qualify as speech protected from retaliation by the First Amendment; and 2) plaintiff could not assert a claim on behalf of her coworker because that coworker suffered no infringement of her own constitutional rights.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/17/2009
• Decided 03/11/2010
• Published 03/11/2010

Judges

• JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge:, Before: CABRANES and HALL, Circuit Judges, STEIN, District Judge.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Jonathan Lovett (Drita Nicaj, on the brief), Lovett & Gould, LLP, White Plains, NY, for plaintiff-appellee., Monica Wagner, Assistant Solicitor General (Andrew M. Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, on the brief, Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, and Richard Dearing, Assistant Solicitor General, of counsel), Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York, New York, NY, for defendants-appellants.