United States Fourth Circuit

Officers were correctly denied qualified immunity in a section 1983 claim that they conspired to deprive plaintiff of his First Amendment rights, where the plaintiff's conditions of employment following his suspension for criticizing officers operated as a prior restraint on his free speech rights.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/05/2002
• Decided 02/04/2003
• Published 02/04/2003

Judges

• Before WILKINS and MOTZ, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Mark Dudley Obenshain, Keeler Obenshain, P.C., Harrisonburg, Virginia, for Appellants.  Neal Lawrence Walters, Scott & Kroner, P.C., Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  Deborah C. Wyatt, Wyatt & Associates, P.L.C., Charlottesville, Virginia;  Barbara S. Jenkins, Jenkins & Rhea, P.L.C., Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellee.  Robert M. O'Neil, J. Joshua Wheeler, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, Charlottesville, Virginia, for Amicus Curiae.