Lewis v. City of Atlanta

Hunstein, Justice.

Appellants Thomas Lewis and Odette Florence were City of Atlanta employees. In 1998, each City of Atlanta department received a financial directive that the 1999 budget had to be submitted with a permanent 18% reduction. Appellants’ jobs were among those positions designated to be abolished in order to achieve the new budgetary goals. The Atlanta City Council subsequently reinserted the positions in the budget, but the mayor ultimately exercised his line-item veto authority to permanently do away with the jobs. Appellants filed suit against the City in the U. S. District…