Barbara v. Hudson v. James Craven Yvette Jackson Patricia Serrano Katrina Golder David Duback
Opinion
Opinion
McKEOWN, J.
The World Trade Organization (“WTO”) is the international organization charged with dealing with the rules of trade between nations. In late November 1999, top trade officials from WTO-member countries met in Seattle. The Seattle gathering gained national attention, not just for the policy debate on international trade issues but also because of the demonstrations and violence that occurred.
This civil rights case stems from a community college instructor’s claim that the college retaliated against her after she attended WTO protests with some of her students. Her claim is a hybrid one — it involves both speech and associational rights under the First Amendment. We are presented with an issue of first impression, namely the appropriate test for benchmarking this hybrid right. We conclude that this case should be evaluated under the balancing test established in Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 568 , 88 S.Ct. 1731 , 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968), and that under Pickering , the college’s legitimate safety and pedagogical concerns outweighed the instructor’s rights. We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the college.