Edward E. Rice, Cross-Appellee v. Ohio Department of Transportation

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge.

This is a civil rights case that has been here before on its way to and from the Supreme Court. Plaintiff Rice, an employee of the Ohio Department of Transportation, claims that his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments were violated when he was passed over for appointment to an administrative assistant’s position. The position was filled, he says, through a political patronage system that benefited people who had closer ties than he to the Republican Party. This court affirmed a summary judgment in favor of the defendants, see Rice v. Ohio Department…