Forgue v. City of Chicago

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
First Amendment
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 16-2857
Decision Date: 
October 17, 2017
Federal District: 
N.D. Ill., E. Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed and reversed in part and remanded

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-employer and plaintiff’s co-workers’ motion to dismiss plaintiff-police officer’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants violated his First Amendment rights by harassing him for adhering to police department policy and procedures and for filing numerous complaints involving himself, as well as his sons, whom plaintiff alleged were mistreated by defendants. Instant internal complaints about violations of police department policies and about mistreatment of his sons did not qualify as protected speech for purposes of asserting First Amendment claim, since such complaints were made pursuant to plaintiff’s official duties as police officer. Also, Dist. Ct. could properly dismiss plaintiff’s “class-of-one” equal protection claim in which he asserted that defendants filed false complaints, targeted his sons and improperly withheld Retirement Card, since Ct. in Engvist, 553 U.S. 591, precluded public employees from asserting “class-of-one” equal protection claims in context of disputes relating to public employees’ interactions with their supervisors or co-workers. Dist. Ct. erred, though, in dismissing plaintiff’s claim that defendant-employer violated his procedural due process rights by withholding Retirement Card without due process of law, where basis of Dist. Ct.’s ruling was its erroneous belief that plaintiff failed to plead facts suggesting that he possessed cognizable property interest in receiving said card.