Magee v. Trustees of Hamline University, et al., No. 13-1976 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 after she was terminated by the law school of Hamline University. Plaintiff alleged that the university, the dean, and the president of the St. Paul Police Federation (SPPF) conspired with the St. Paul Police Department to deny her constitutional right to freedom of speech. The court concluded that plaintiff did not plead sufficient facts that a police officer was acting under color of state law; plaintiff did not plead sufficient facts about the University or the Dean to demonstrate that they participated in a concerted action to terminate plaintiff; concerning leave to amend, plaintiff has not plausibly alleged a meeting of the minds between the Department, the SPPF, and the University; and the district court properly ruled that adding the SPPF would be futile. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Civil case - Civil rights.In a Section 1983 action alleging defendants conspired to fire plaintiff from her teaching position after she criticized the St. Paul police, she failed to show that defendant Titus was acting under color of state law or that the university and defendant Lewis conspired to terminate her; the district court did not err in denying plaintiff's motion to amend her complaint to add the St. Paul Police Federation as she could not show a meeting of the minds between the university, the St. Paul Police Department and the Federation, and the amendment would have been futile.
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