Cooper v. Smith

Summary

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to a county sheriff accused of refusing to renew a deputy's commission in retaliation for the deputy's cooperation with a Georgia Bureau of Investigation corruption inquiry. The court held that the deputy's cooperation with an official law-enforcement investigation concerned a matter of public concern and that the First Amendment protection was clearly established. The court declined to exercise pendent jurisdiction over the deputy's interlocutory appeal concerning a separate letter and did not address an evidentiary sufficiency challenge.

Holdings

1. The court declined to exercise assumed pendent jurisdiction over Cooper's appeal because the district court's partial disposition was not a final, immediately appealable order absent Rule 54(b) certification.
2. The denial of qualified immunity was immediately appealable to the extent it turned on a legal issue, although the court would not review an evidentiary-sufficiency challenge to the district court's finding that Cooper had presented sufficient evidence of causation.
3. Smith was not entitled to qualified immunity because, on the assumed facts, Cooper's cooperation with an official law-enforcement investigation into corruption was speech on a matter of public concern, the Pickering balance inevitably favored Cooper, and the First Amendment right was clearly established when Smith refused to renew Cooper's commission.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Eleventh Circuit had jurisdiction over Cooper's appeal from the district court's partial summary-judgment ruling concerning speech in his December 17, 1992 letter.
2. Whether Sheriff Smith was entitled to qualified immunity from Cooper's First Amendment retaliation claim based on Smith's refusal to renew Cooper's commission because Cooper cooperated with the GBI investigation.

Disposition

affirmed