Background
Benjamin Carter, a firefighter and union president, was fired by Fire Chief David Beebe after making comments about a recruit’s request for a religious accommodation. The termination followed the disciplinary procedures outlined in the collective bargaining agreement, which allowed discharge only for just cause but did not provide for a post-termination hearing. Carter sued under Section nineteen eighty-three of Title forty-two of the United States Code, alleging a violation of his Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process. The district court denied the chief’s claim of qualified immunity and granted summary judgment to Carter, finding that the lack of a post-termination hearing violated clearly established law.
The court’s reasoning
The Tenth Circuit reviewed the denial of qualified immunity de novo. The court focused on whether the law was clearly established at the time of the alleged violation. While the Supreme Court decision in Cleveland Board of Education versus Loudermill held that a state statute could not confer a property interest while denying procedural safeguards, the court distinguished that case because it involved a state statute rather than a collective bargaining agreement. The court found that a contract between a union and a public employer is not the same as a state statute. Because Carter did not cite any Supreme Court, Tenth Circuit, or other circuit case applying Loudermill to a collective bargaining agreement, he failed to show that every reasonable official would have understood that the conduct violated the Constitution.
Mr. Carter has not shown that Chief Beebe violated clearly established law when he fired Mr. Carter according to the disciplinary procedures provided in the CBA.
Carter v. Beebe, No. 25-1424 (10th Cir. June 22, 2026)
What it means going forward
Public employers relying on collective bargaining agreements for disciplinary procedures may now have stronger grounds to assert qualified immunity in due process claims where no specific precedent applies the Loudermill rule to contracts.