Perez v. City of Roseville, No. 15-16430 (9th Cir. 2018) Annotate this Case

Justia Opinion Summary Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against defendants, alleging that her termination from the police department violated her constitutional rights to privacy and intimate association. The Ninth Circuit held that plaintiff has put forth sufficient evidence to survive summary judgment on her section 1983 claim for violation of her constitutional rights to privacy and intimate association. In this case, a genuine factual dispute existed as to whether defendants terminated plaintiff at least in part on the basis of her extramarital affair. Furthermore, these rights were clearly established at the time. Therefore, the panel reversed the district court's grant of qualified immunity on her privacy claim and remanded that claim for further proceedings. The panel affirmed summary judgment on plaintiff's due process claim because any due process rights she might have had were not clearly established at the time of the challenged action, and thus defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. Finally, the panel affirmed summary judgment on plaintiff's sex discrimination claim because the evidence indicated that defendants' disapproval of her extramarital affair, rather than gender discrimination, was the cause of her termination. Read more

Court Description: Employment Discrimination / Constitutional Law The panel (1) reversed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the defendants on a former probationary police officer’s claim of violation of her rights to privacy and intimate association and (2) affirmed the district court’s summary judgment on the former officer’s due process and gender discrimination claims. The officer was discharged after an internal affairs investigation into her romantic relationship with a fellow officer. She claimed, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, that her termination violated her constitutional rights to privacy and intimate association because it was impermissibly based in part on disapproval of her private, off-duty sexual conduct. Disagreeing with the Fifth and Tenth Circuits, the panel held that the constitutional guarantees of privacy and free association prohibit the State from taking adverse employment action on the basis of private sexual conduct unless it demonstrates that such conduct negatively affects on-the-job performance or violates a constitutionally permissible, narrowly tailored regulation. Because a genuine factual dispute existed as to whether the defendants terminated the officer at least in part on the basis of her extramarital affair, the panel concluded that she put forth sufficient evidence to survive summary judgment. Moreover, the rights of privacy and intimate association were clearly established such that any reasonable official would have been on notice that, viewing the facts in the light PEREZ V. CITY OF ROSEVILLE 3 most favorable to her, the officer’s termination was unconstitutional. The panel therefore reversed the district court’s grant of qualified immunity on the privacy claim and remanded that claim for further proceedings. The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment on the officer’s due process claim because any due process rights she might have had were not clearly established at the time of the challenged action. Therefore, the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on that claim. The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment on the officer’s sex discrimination claim because the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to her, indicated that the defendants’ disapproval of her extramarital affair, rather than gender discrimination, was the cause of her termination. Concurring, Judge Tashima disagreed with much of the majority’s reasoning but agreed with its decision to reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendants on the officer’s Fourteenth Amendment privacy claim. Judge Tashima concurred on the basis that the defendants’ reasons for firing the officer all arose in such short order after the internal affairs review that a reasonable inference could be drawn that they may have been pretextual. He disagreed with the majority’s analysis of the significance of the deposition testimony of the police chief and the statements of subordinate officers. 4 PEREZ V. CITY OF ROSEVILLE

The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on May 21, 2019.

