Don Thompson v. Carl Adams

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

Approximately five weeks after Caryl Thompson addressed the city council of Bull Shoals, Arkansas, with respect to actions of various council members that she felt were unlawful, the mayor, with the support of the council, fired her husband, Don Thompson, from his position as city street superintendent. He had worked for the city for twenty years.

The Thompsons sued the city, the may- or, and the council members, alleging that they denied Mr. Thompson’s due process rights under the fourteenth amendment by firing him without notice, a statement of reasons,…