Robert J. Tormey, Jr. Nicoletti , Bernard J. Mahoney , John A. DeFrancisco , Walter J. Ludovico , Edward S. Nowakowski , James T. Walsh , James P. United States District Court, N. New York. McCrone , Syracuse, N. David M. Garber, Corp. Counsel , Syracuse, N. Bottar , Eleanor Theodore , Syracuse, N. Plaintiff brought this civil rights action for injunctive and monetary relief to protect his position as City Clerk of the City of Syracuse , New York.
This Court found in favor of plaintiff , and enjoined defendants -councilors from dismissing or failing to reelect him solely on grounds of his political affiliation. The Court assumes the reader's familiarity with that opinion. Presently before the Court is plaintiff 's motion for a determination of damages and costs.
Plaintiff seeks only attorneys' fees as a part of his costs. Code Cong. News , Senate Report quoting Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises , U. This liberal policy reflects Congress ' purpose not only to penalize constitutional violators but to encourage resort to courts to seek judicial relief for such transgressions. Helgemoe , F. Here, a majority of the Syracuse Common Council violated plaintiff 's First Amendment rights of freedom of belief and association by refusing to rehire Visser solely because of his political affiliations.
If this Court determines, however, that the Republicans' action was "legislative," Supreme Court of Virginia v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. Properly interpreted, the Common Council majority's action falls outside the scope of absolute legislative immunity. Supreme Court language discusses the extent of the privilege only in general terms; 3 no precise formulation exists to guide this Court.
Having reviewed the available possibilities, the Court adopts the two-pronged analysis of Developments in the Lawβ Zoning , 91 Harv. Under that test, the Court must first discern "the type of underlying facts on which the decision is based," and then consider "whether the government action results in a differentiable impact on specifiable individuals. The action here was clearly administrative. The Republican councilors based their decision not to rehire Visser solely on the specific fact of his party affiliation.
