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Civil Rights: §1983-First Amendment Retaliation-Tortious Interference with Employment
Staff Report//May 7, 2026//
The case returned to the court on remand for further consideration of defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ First Amendment retaliation, due process and tortious interference claims. Plaintiff alleged that defendants induced his employer to terminate him in retaliation for plaintiff’s speech protesting the decommissioning of an encampment of unhoused persons. Defendants argued that they were entitled to qualified and official immunity on plaintiff’s claims.
Where the record, viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, showed that he had engaged in protected speech and that defendants’ subsequent conduct was motivated by retaliation in seeking to induce plaintiff’s employer to terminate him, defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage.
Defendant’s motion to dismiss granted.
Simon v. Jones (MLW No. 84694/Case No. 4:23 CV 955 CDP – 31 pages) (U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, Perry, J.)
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