Bernard Jones v. Rick McNeese

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• explaining that in the analogous § 1983 context, injury to reputation is insufficient to state a claim unless it is coupled to a more tangible interest like employment
• “Although Paul’s ‘stigma-plus’ test arises most often in situations where the plaintiff is (or was) a government employee, the liberty interest also extends to independent contractors.”
• where district court relied on inadmissible hearsay evidence at summary judgment, this court reviewed remaining admissible evidence to determine whether it was sufficient to show constitutional violation
• “Although Paul’s[3] ‘stigma-plus’ test arises most often in situations where the plaintiff is (or was) a government employee, the liberty interest also extends to independent contractors.” (citation omitted)
• while defendant’s failure to reinstate plaintiff on contractor list harmed his ability to pursue his profession, defendant’s internal emails alleging that plaintiff may have engaged in unethical conduct did not create level of stigma required to implicate liberty interest
• An individual is “denied qualified immunity if the answers to the following two questions are yes: (1) whether the plaintiff has shown the violation of a statutory or constitutional right, and (2) whether that right was clearly establish at the time of the alleged misconduct”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).