Wabaunsee County Board of County Commissioners Kansas v. Umbehr - Significance, The Court's Decision, Justices Scalia And Thomas Dissent, Impact, Further Readings

petitioner respondent lawyer chief

Petitioner

Board of County Commissioners, Wabaunsee County, Kansas

Respondent

Keen A. Umbehr

Petitioner's Claim

Termination of his contract to perform services for the county after he criticized the conduct of county government officials violated his First Amendment free speech right.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

Donald Patterson

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Robert A. Van Kirk

Justices for the Court

Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor (writing for the Court), William H. Rehnquist, David H. Souter, John Paul Stevens

Justices Dissenting

Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

28 June 1996

Decision

The Court agreed that the petitioner's rights had been violated.

Related Cases

Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968).
Rutan v. Republican Party, 497 U.S. 62 (1990).
Waters v. Churchill, 511 U.S. 661 (1994).
O'Hare Truck Service, Inc. v. City of Northlake, 518 U.S. 712 (1996).

Additional Topics

Wabaunsee County Board of County Commissioners Kansas v. Umbehr - Significance

First Amendment protection against retaliation for political speech extended to independent contractors providing services to governments. In 1981 Keen A. Umbehr entered into an agreement as an independent contractor with Wabaunsee County, Kansas, under which he would be the exclusive hauler of trash for all cities within the county, subject to acceptance of the agreement by each city. The terms o…

Wabaunsee County Board of County Commissioners Kansas v. Umbehr - The Court's Decision

The Court granted certiorari in order to resolve the conflict between the trial court and the appeals court "regarding whether and to what extent independent contractors are protected by the First Amendment," noting that in a number of cases federal courts had delivered conflicting opinions on this issue. The majority agreed with the opinion of the appeals court, however, both in holding that inde…

Wabaunsee County Board of County Commissioners Kansas v. Umbehr - Justices Scalia And Thomas Dissent

Justice Scalia, joined by Thomas, delivered a dissent that by its very first sentence clearly revealed his frustration with the majority decision: " . . . this Court's Constitution-making process can be called `reasoned adjudication' only in the most formalistic sense." Later in his opinion he was even more critical: "The Court must be living in another world. Day by day, case by case, it is busy …

Citing this material

Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.

Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.