Carrillo v. Rostro

OPINION

MONTGOMERY, Justice.

In this case we address two important questions of first impression in New Mexico, one substantive, the other procedural. The substantive question is whether the defendant school board members, who refused to renew the plaintiff school principal’s contract because of her criticism of the Board at a public meeting, may invoke the defense of qualified immunity to plaintiff’s civil rights claims. Plaintiff sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1988) for defendants’ alleged violation of her First and Fourteenth Amendment right to speak at a public meeting.1

The procedural…