Court says ruling in Burbank police case could ‘chill’ whistle-blowers
Eric Hartley (LA Daily News) | August 07, 2012
In a ruling it said could discourage police officers from blowing the whistle on misconduct, a federal appeals court on Tuesday reluctantly upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a First Amendment lawsuit filed by a former Burbank police detective.
The decision turned on a 2009 ruling by another panel of the same court, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The earlier case held that disclosure of police misconduct, even done against the orders of superiors, is a professional duty of police officers and thus not protected by the First Amendment.
Burbank Detective Angelo Dahlia accused colleagues of beating suspects during a 2007 robbery investigation. After he spoke to internal and outside investigators about the allegations, he was placed on administrative leave pending discipline, according to his lawsuit.
Dahlia, who left the department in 2010, claimed violations of his First Amendment rights, retaliation and other civil rights violations.
But a judge ruled he could not sue in federal court because of the 2009 ruling in Huppert v. City of Pittsburg, which involved a police officer in a city northeast of Oakland.
On appeal, the three-judge panel said it could not overturn a previous holding by a panel of the same court. But it used unusually strong language in criticizing fellow judges.
“The reasoning in Huppert that professional duties can be determined as a matter of law is wrong, and the result that reports of police misconduct are not protected by the First Amendment is dangerous,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the unanimous panel.
The judges said the result “chills the speech of potential whistle-blowers in a culture that is already protective of its own.”
The First Amendment question is key, since the government may not stifle the speech of someone speaking as a private citizen, even if that person also is a government employee.
The appellate judges said a lawsuit like Dahlia’s should move forward until it’s determined whether the officer was speaking in his official capacity or as a private citizen.
Instead, the court said, the result is “that the act of whistleblowing is itself a professional duty of police officers, thus stripping such speech of the First Amendment’s protection.”
Read more at: http://www.dailynews.com/crime/ci_21258882/court-says-ruling-burbank-police-case-could-chill
Photo credit: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove
Tags: administrative leave, Burbank police detective, Detective Angelo Dahlia, First Amendment lawsuit, Huppert v. City of Pittsburg, retaliation, robbery investigation, whistleblowing
Posted by Lora
on Aug 7 2012. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
