Judge Questions Circuit Approach to Public Employee Free Speech

The Ninth Circuit rejected a former police advisory board member’s claims that he was unlawfully dismissed from the board based on his religious beliefs, prompting a federal judge to question the circuit’s precedent in a concurring opinion.

The Ninth Circuit’s 2023 holding Lathus v. City of Huntington Beach “may be in tension with other First Amendment jurisprudence,” said district court Judge J. Campbell Barker in a concurring opinion Thursday, who was sitting on the Ninth Circuit panel by designation. Barker ultimately applied Lathus’ holding with the panel and affirmed the dismissal of Dennis Hodge’s First Amendment lawsuit against San Diego ...