First Circuit: Reverses On 1983 Patronage Dismissal Case

The First Circuit yesterday in Lopez-Quinones v. Puerto Rico National reversed a decision of the District Court in Puerto Rico and held that individual defendants were immune from suit under Section 1983 for a claim by a former director of the general services section of the Puerto Rico National Guard who claimed he was dismissed because of his political party affiliation.  See http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=1st&navby=docket&no=071976

 

The First Circuit (Boudin, J.) found that the job termination violated the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights because the job did not involve policy-making judgments which are inherently political.   However, it found the individual defendants entitled to qualified immunity, because a reasonable person could have believed (albeit mistakenly) that it was permissible to use political affiliation as a job qualification. 

 

Judge Torruella dissented on the grounds that political discrimination claims are common in Puerto Rico, and therefore the governing administration would have been on notice that any politically-based termination must be scrutinized to determine whether political affiliation is significant in the type of job at issue.  Here, Judge Torruella argued, no reasonable person could have believed that the plaintiff’s job – which essentially consisted of supervising a large a janitorial staff – was in any way political.