Susan Hobler Linda Southwell v. Gary Brueher, in His Individual Capacity

This appeal tests whether an elected county prosecutor must retain the at-will confidential secretaries hired by the predecessor he defeated, who supported the predecessor politically.

Facts

The firings of Susan Hobler and Linda Southwell, at-will secretaries in the Adams County prosecutor’s office, occurred after a countywide election that replaced then-prosecutor David Sandhaus. Adams County is a lightly populated rural county in southeastern Washington. The county seat is in Ritzville, a little town southwest of Spokane, southeast of Wenatchie, and northeast of Kennewick. The county’s elected prosecutor works mainly in the Ritzville office, but has a branch office in Othello, an even smaller town to the southeast.

After Sandhaus was elected as the Adams County prosecutor, he hired Ms. Hobler and Ms. Southwell as support staff. The county prosecutor prosecutes criminal cases, collects child support, and advises the County Commissioners on legal matters and policy. In addition to the prosecutor and whatever assistants or deputies he had in the Ritzville office, that office ordinarily has had two support staff positions. The Othello office was devoted exclusively to collecting…