United States Eighth Circuit

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action against a city alleging plaintiff-public works director was unlawfully dismissed for accusing the city council of violating Missouri's open meetings law, denial of qualified immunity for defendant is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff asserted a First Amendment violation as his speech regarding sunshine law compliance was as a citizen and on a matter of public concern; 2) the city and mayor did not meet their burden to trigger the Pickering balancing test; and 3) a reasonable official would have realized it was illegal to terminate plaintiff for speaking out about the city's perceived violations of the sunshine law.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/26/2007
• Published 06/26/2007

Judges

• BYE, Circuit Judge., Before WOLLMAN, BYE, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant was Brandon D. Mizner of Kansas City, MO. Also appearing on the brief were J. Earlene Farr and Matthew J. Gist.


• For Appellees:
  
• Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee was G. Gordon Atcheson of Westwood, KS.