Alsbrook v. City of Maumelle

• Citation: 1999 WL 521709,184 F.3d 999
• Decision Date: 11 January 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-1825,97-1825
• Parties: (8th Cir. 1999) CHRISTOPHER B. ALSBROOK; PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INTERVENOR ON APPEAL, v. CITY OF MAUMELLE, ARKANSAS; DEFENDANT, ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; STATE OF ARKANSAS; W. C. BRASSELL, ALSO KNOWN AS DUB BRASSELL, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS CAPACITY AS CHAIRMAN OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; BOBBY HILDERBRAND, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; WILLARD, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; ELANOR ANTHONY, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HER OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; BOB JOHNSTON, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; DAVID MUNIZ, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; GARY ASHCRAFT, INDIVIDUALLY, AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING, DEFENDANTS/APPELLANTS. Submitted:
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

Page 999

184 F.3d 999 (8th Cir. 1999)

CHRISTOPHER B. ALSBROOK; PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INTERVENOR ON APPEAL, v. CITY OF MAUMELLE, ARKANSAS; DEFENDANT, ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; STATE OF ARKANSAS; W. C. BRASSELL, ALSO KNOWN AS DUB BRASSELL, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS CAPACITY AS CHAIRMAN OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; BOBBY HILDERBRAND, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; WILLARD, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; ELANOR ANTHONY, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HER OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; BOB JOHNSTON, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; DAVID MUNIZ, INDIVIDUALLY AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING; GARY ASHCRAFT, INDIVIDUALLY, AND IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS A MEMBER OF THE ARKANSAS COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS AND TRAINING, DEFENDANTS/APPELLANTS.

No. 97-1825

U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit

Submitted: January 11, 1999

Decided July 23, 1999

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Gregory L. Crow, Little Rock, Arkansas, argued (Kay J. Jackson Demailly, Little Rock, Arkansas, on the brief), for appellants.

Seth M. Galanter, Washington, D.C., argued (Jessica Dunsay Silver, Washington, D.C., on the brief), for intervenor.

Robert Alston Newcomb, Little Rock, Arkansas, argued, for appellee.

Before Bowman,¹ Chief Judge, McMILLIAN, Richard S. Arnold, Fagg, Wollman, Beam, Loken, Hansen, Morris Sheppard Arnold, and Murphy, Circuit Judges.

Beam, Circuit Judge.

Christopher Alsbrook brought this suit against his employer, the City of Maumelle, Arkansas (the City); the State of Arkansas (the State); the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training (ACLEST); and the commissioners of ACLEST, in their official capacities, under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He also brought claims against the commissioners, in their individual capacities, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The State, ACLEST, and the commissioners (collectively, appellants) moved for summary judgment asserting that the ADA claim was barred by Eleventh Amendment immunity and that the section 1983 claims were barred by Eleventh Amendment immunity, qualified immunity, and failure to state a cause of action against the commissioners in their individual capacities. The district court denied the motion. This interlocutory appeal followed.

We reverse the district court's denial of summary judgment on the ADA claim, because we find that extension of Title II of the ADA to the State exceeds Congress's authority under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. We also reverse the district court's denial of summary judgment on the section 1983 claim.

I. BACKGROUND

ACLEST is an agency of the State of Arkansas which regulates the hiring and certification of law enforcement officers within the State. To be certified as a law enforcement officer, an applicant must meet certain minimum standards established by ACLEST. The standards, set out in Section 1002 of the Rules and Regulations of the Executive Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training (Section 1002), provide in pertinent part that "[e]very officer employed by a law enforcement unit shall... [b]e examined by a licensed physician and meet the physical requirements prescribed in Specification S-5, Physical Examination." The relevant portion of Specification S-5 states that an applicant must possess visual acuity that can be corrected to 20/20 in each eye.

Christopher Alsbrook began his employment with the Maumelle Department of Public Safety (Maumelle Department) in January 1993, as a public safety officer. Alsbrook's right eye has a corrected vision of 20/30 and cannot be corrected to 20/20 due to a congenital condition called amblyopia. At the time he was hired by the Maumelle Department, Dr. Cosgrove, an ophthalmologist in Little Rock, had written a letter opining that Alsbrook's amblyopia would not impair his ability to perform any activity or type of work.

In May 1993, Alsbrook submitted an application for enrollment in an officer training course at the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy. In the application, Alsbrook's supervisor certified that Alsbrook met the minimum standards for appointment as a law enforcement officer as prescribed in Section 1002.² Alsbrook was accepted into the course and successfully completed it in December, 1993. He was then employed as a law enforcement officer with the Maumelle Department. However, because the Maumelle Department never filed a request for certification on Alsbrook's behalf after he completed the training course, Alsbrook was technically functioning as an uncertified law enforcement officer during this time period.³

In 1995, Alsbrook sought to join the larger Little Rock Police Department which he believed would offer him better opportunities for advancement. After being notified of the results of an eye exam Alsbrook took as part of his application to the Little Rock Police Department, and having reviewed the documentation on Alsbrook's eye condition on file at the Maumelle Department, the training officer in Little Rock informed Alsbrook that he needed to obtain a waiver from ACLEST exempting him from the visual acuity requirement before he could be hired.

On September 5, 1995, Alsbrook appeared before ACLEST requesting a waiver of the visual acuity requirement. ACLEST determined that it did not have the authority to waive the requirement. It undertook a study to determine whether the requirement should be changed, and concluded that the visual acuity requirement was necessary to meet legitimate concerns. On September 19, 1995, ACLEST notified the Maumelle Department that it would not certify Alsbrook due to his eyesight. Because of his inability to obtain a waiver, Alsbrook was denied employment with the Little Rock Police Department. He remained with the Maumelle Department, but was barred from responding to any police calls or working on any police-related paperwork or duties. His salary remained unaffected. Appellants admit that Alsbrook has successfully completed all requirements to be a certified law enforcement officer in the State other than having a corrected vision of 20/20 in his right eye.

Alsbrook brought the present action in federal district court seeking injunctive relief as well as compensatory and punitive damages on the grounds that appellants violated his rights under Title II of the ADA and 42 U.S.C. § 1983⁴ in refusing to certify him as a law enforcement officer because of his disability, or because they regarded him as having a disability.⁵

Appellants moved for summary judgment arguing that: (1) there was no valid abrogation of their Eleventh Amendment immunity under the ADA; (2) the section 1983 claim asserted against appellants in their official capacities was barred by the Eleventh Amendment; (3) the section 1983 claim against the commissioners in their individual capacities for violations of Title II of the ADA failed to state a cause of action because Title II only covers discrimination by a public entity; and (4) in any event, the commissioners were entitled to qualified immunity. The summary judgment motion also asserted that Alsbrook was not disabled within the meaning of the ADA.

The district court denied appellants' motion. It found that because the ADA was enacted pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment, it represented a valid abrogation of Eleventh Amendment immunity. It also denied summary judgment on the section 1983 claims brought against the commissioners in their individual capacities.⁶ In reaching its decision the district court was careful to point out that:

The narrow holding of this Order is simply that the defendants are not entitled to summary judgment, either in their official or individual capacities. At trial, the defendants may be able to demonstrate that the standards they set are reasonable and rationally related to necessary skills for law enforcement officers. On the record currently before the Court, the defendants are not entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

Alsbrook v. City of Maumelle, No. LR-C-96-68, memo. op. at 9 (E.D. Ark. Mar. 24, 1997).

This interlocutory appeal on the issues of Eleventh Amendment and qualified immunity followed. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2403(a), the United States has intervened in the appeal to oppose appellants' Eleventh Amendment argument as it pertains to the ADA claim. On appeal, a panel of this court, one Judge Dissenting, affirmed the district court's denial of summary judgment on the ADA claim, but reversed the district court's denial of summary judgment on the section 1983 claims against the commissioners in their individual capacities. See Alsbrook v. City of Maumelle, 156 F.3d 825 (8th Cir. 1998).

We granted rehearing en banc, thereby vacating the panel opinion. After consideration by the court en banc, we now reverse the district court's denial of summary judgment on both grounds for the reasons discussed below.

II. DISCUSSION

As a preliminary matter, we hold that we have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal under the collateral order doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 545-47 (1949). See, e.g., Murphy v. Arkansas, 127 F.3d 750, 753 (8th Cir. 1997) (order denying claim of Eleventh Amendment immunity is appealable as a collateral order); Manzano v. South Dakota Dep't of Soc. Servs., 60 F.3d 505, 509 (8th Cir. 1995) (denial of a motion for summary judgment based on...