University of Arizona Officials Are Immune From Retaliation Suit

University of Arizona officials have qualified immunity from a lawsuit alleging that a former university employee lost his job in retaliation for his husband’s “whistleblowing speech,” the Ninth Circuit affirmed Wednesday.

The officials are shielded from plaintiff Anthony DeFrancesco’s 42 U.S.C. §1983 claim for deprivation of a constitutional right because he didn’t show that the officials’ alleged conduct clearly violated the First Amendment at the time of his termination, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in a per curiam opinion.

The appeals court left “for another day” the issue of whether a public employee has constitutional ...