Sheila Rendell-Baker v. Sandra Kohn, Wayne Klug v. New Perspectives School, Inc.

CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge.

These two consolidated appeals from differing judgments in the district court involve claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by former staff members of the New Perspectives School, Inc. Plaintiffs contend they were discharged because of exercise of-their first amendment rights and without due process. The only question now before us is whether, in discharging plaintiffs, the defendants acted “under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any state.”

I

The decisions under review both occurred without the taking of any evidence. In Rendell-Baker,…