CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT |
LATHERIAN HARRIS,
Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant,
v.
CITY OF SAGINAW, MICHIGAN, et al.,
Defendants,
MEGAN NELSON; JORDAN LADOUCE; TYLER CECE;
STEVE LAUTNER,
Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees. |
Nos. 22-1504/1505 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Bay City.
No. 1:20-cv-13075—Thomas L. Ludington, District Judge.
Decided and Filed: March 20, 2023
Before: COLE, GIBBONS, and READLER, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
COLE, Circuit Judge. After Latherian Harris called 911 to report that a store clerk had
pulled a gun on him, four officers arrived on scene. Believing Harris lied about the assault, the
officers arrested Harris for allegedly filing a false felony report. Harris spent 18 days in jail as a
result. Harris later sued the officers, the detective who submitted the police report, and the City
of Saginaw for false arrest and imprisonment. He also sued the City for failure to train and
supervise the arresting officers. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court
denied Harris’s motion in full, denied qualified immunity to the officers, granted qualified
immunity to Detective Busch, and dismissed Harris’s failure-to-train and failure-to-supervise
claims. Because there is a genuine dispute of material fact regarding whether the on-scene
officers arrested Harris without probable cause, but no dispute as to Detective Busch or the City
of Saginaw’s actions, we affirm. |
CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT |
GERALD DEAN MORGAN,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE
SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE; SANDRA GARRETT, in
her individual capacity,
Defendants-Appellees. |
No. 22-5200 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville.
No. 3:21-cv-00274—Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr., District Judge.
Argued: October 19, 2022
Decided and Filed: March 20, 2023
Before: BATCHELDER, BUSH, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.
_________________________
OPINION
_________________________
JOHN K. BUSH, Circuit Judge. This case involves a lawyer, Gerald Morgan, whose
alleged anti-Muslim tweets led to termination of his employment as Disciplinary Counsel for the
Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee (the Board). The
tweets occurred before Morgan took the job, but they came back to haunt him in that position. In
a state-court appeal of a disciplinary order of the Board, a litigant cited the tweets as grounds to
disqualify Morgan from appearing as the Board’s counsel in the appeal. Following Morgan’s
withdrawal from that appeal, an internal investigation ended with the Board firing him.
Morgan then sued the Board and Sandra Garrett, the Board’s Chief Disciplinary Counsel,
for injunctive relief based on alleged violation of his First Amendment right to free speech and
for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 based on alleged wrongful termination. The district court
dismissed without prejudice Morgan’s request for injunctive relief against the Board as barred by
Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity and because part of that request was moot. As for the
request for damages, the district court also dismissed based on the Board’s sovereign immunity,
as well as a determination that Garrett was entitled to absolute quasi-judicial immunity. For
reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal of Morgan’s claims against
the Board. But we REVERSE the district court’s dismissal of Morgan’s request for monetary
relief against Garrett based on absolute quasi-judicial immunity and REMAND for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion. |
|