Due Process Violation

Listen to this article

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Claudia Manley, et al. v. Bruce Law, et al.

Case No.: 16-3846

Officials: EASTERBROOK, ROVNER, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Due Process Violation

American politics is not for the thin‐skinned. In this case, a dispute between an elected school board member and a student outside a high school play escalated quickly. The school board launched an investigation into the board member’s alleged bullying of the student. The board member and her husband filed this lawsuit, originally to try to stop the investigation. After that did not work, the plaintiffs asserted that the school board and superintendent violated their federal constitutional rights by conducting the investigation and publicly criticizing the board member for her handling of the dispute with the student. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, plaintiffs tell us, protects their emotional well‐being and entitles them to feel that the government treated them fairly. We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment dismissing the case.

Affirmed

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.