Summary
The United States District Court for the Western District of New York considers motions to dismiss claims arising from alleged retaliation against plaintiffs’ criticism of the Town of Greece and alleged warrantless GPS surveillance of the Murphy family. The court addresses Article III standing, individual and municipal liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and related claims under §§ 1985(2) and 1986. Based on the text provided, the motions are granted in part and denied in part, with the court finding that the non-Ryan Murphy plaintiffs plausibly alleged emotional and psychological injuries sufficient for standing and that the claims against the Town and Michelle Marini could proceed in relevant respects.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Bethany Murphy and the minor children adequately alleged Article III injury-in-fact for standing purposes.
- Whether claims against Michelle Marini in her official capacity could proceed.
- Whether the complaint plausibly alleged municipal liability under Monell against the Town of Greece.
- Whether the Bolaños Lowe Defendants plausibly acted under color of state law or conspired with a state actor.
- Whether the complaint plausibly stated First Amendment claims based on alleged restrictions of Murphy's speech on municipal and other social-media pages.
- Whether the substantive due process claim was duplicative of the Fourth Amendment claim based on installation of the GPS tracker.
- Whether the complaint plausibly stated a § 1983 conspiracy claim.
- Whether the equal-protection claim failed for lack of adequately identified comparators.
- Whether the complaint plausibly stated claims under §§ 1985(2) and 1986.
Holdings
- The allegations that Bethany Murphy and the children suffered severe anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, panic attacks, and fear of leaving their home sufficiently alleged concrete and particularized injuries for Article III standing.
- Any claims against Marini in her official capacity were dismissed; claims against her in her individual capacity were not dismissed on that ground.
- The complaint plausibly alleged that the Town of Greece maintained or implemented an official policy or custom of restricting Murphy's criticism on social-media platforms and plausibly alleged that Marini acted as a final policymaker concerning the alleged surveillance and GPS tracking.
- The complaint plausibly alleged that the Bolaños Lowe Defendants acted under color of state law and participated in a conspiracy with the Town to violate plaintiffs' constitutional rights.
- The complaint plausibly stated First Amendment claims against the Town and Bolaños Lowe Defendants based on alleged viewpoint- and content-based restrictions of Murphy's speech on Nextdoor and the Town's Facebook page.
- The substantive due process claim was dismissed because the alleged GPS tracking was governed by the Fourth Amendment's explicit protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
- The complaint plausibly stated a § 1983 conspiracy claim against the Town and Bolaños Lowe Defendants.
- The equal-protection claim against the Town Defendants was dismissed because plaintiffs identified no specific comparators who were similarly situated in all material respects.
- The complaint plausibly stated a § 1985(2) witness-intimidation conspiracy claim and, because the § 1985 claim survived, a derivative § 1986 claim also survived.
Key quotations
“Defendants’ contentions fail because injury to a party’s constitutional rights is not required to establish injury-in-fact.” (Discussion § II)
“Plaintiffs have therefore sufficiently pleaded an official policy or custom for purposes of their freedom of speech claims.” (Discussion § III.B)
“So long as the speech is protected under the First Amendment, it is plausibly an infringement of a private citizen’s rights for a government official to regulate a citizen’s speech on a municipality’s official social media site.” (Discussion § III.D)
“The Court finds that Plaintiffs’ substantive due process claim is subsumed by its claim under the Fourth Amendment and is therefore dismissed.” (Discussion § III.E)
“Because the Court has found that Plaintiffs’ § 1985(2) claim is sufficient to withstand the motions to dismiss, Defendants are incorrect that there is no claim for an underlying conspiracy that Plaintiffs’ § 1986 claim may rely on.” (Discussion § IV)
Factual background
Ryan Murphy publicly criticized the Town of Greece and its officials on Nextdoor, Facebook, and a separate Facebook page concerning alleged governmental misconduct. The complaint alleged that Town officials or agents directed him to stop posting, caused him to be banned from social-media pages, increased police attention around his family, and coordinated with private attorneys and investigators to surveil the family and install a warrantless GPS tracker on their vehicle. Bethany Murphy and the children alleged severe emotional distress, anxiety, panic attacks, and fear resulting from the alleged conduct, while Ryan Murphy alleged chilled speech and financial harm.
Procedural history
Plaintiffs filed the complaint on January 17, 2025. The Cass & Morales Defendants and Town Defendants moved to dismiss on March 14, 2025, and the Bolaños Lowe Defendants moved to dismiss on March 17, 2025. After briefing, the court granted the motions in part and denied them in part, dismissing certain official-capacity, substantive-due-process, and equal-protection claims while allowing the remaining claims to proceed.