Depaul Industries v. Benjamin Miller

BACKGROUND

In the early 2000s, the City began contracting for security services with DePaul Industries. DePaul is classified as a “qualified nonprofit agency for individuals

1 We do not reach the question of whether DePaul had a constitutionally protected property interest in its contracts with the City. Instead, our analysis is limited to whether any such interest was clearly established at the time of the alleged violation.

DEPAUL INDUSTRIES V. MILLER

with disabilities” or “QRF” under an Oregon law that requires cities to contract with QRFs in certain circumstances. Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 279.835(5), 279.850(1)(a). For more than a decade, DePaul staffed the City’s public library and eleven of its parking garages with unarmed security guards. Every twelve months, the City reviewed DePaul’s contracts for the library and parking garages and renewed the contracts for the coming year. But in 2016, the City decided to modify its security services by requiring that the security service employees be armed and decided not to renew the contracts. At the time, DePaul was the only QRF certified by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services to provide unarmed…