United States Fifth Circuit

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 racial discrimination and employment retaliation suit brought by plaintiff whose job as a systems analyst with the Texas Lottery Commission was terminated by defendant, denial of summary judgment for defendant claiming qualified immunity is affirmed in part and dismissed in part where: 1) the district court correctly determined that, if plaintiff could prove that defendant fired him for his "speech," plaintiff alleged an objectively unreasonable violation of his First Amendment rights because the speech for which he was putatively fired was entitled to constitutional protection; and 2) the circuit court lacked jurisdiction to assess whether defendant's actions were "objectively reasonable". (Substituted opinion)

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/26/2008
• Published 03/31/2008

Judges

• WIENER, Circuit Judge:*, Before WIENER, BENAVIDES, and PRADO, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Robert Wayne Schmidt, Crews Law Firm, Austin, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee., R. Ted Cruz, Austin, TX, William T. Deane, Asst. Atty. Gen., Gen. Litigation Div., Austin, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.