Inc. v. City of Northlake O'Hare Truck Service - Significance, The Patronage System, Elrod, Branti, Rutan, The Case In The Lower Courts

contractors government petitioner respondent

Petitioner

O'Hare Truck Service, Inc.

Respondent

City of Northlake

Petitioner's Claim

That the removal of the truck service from the city's list of contractors was based on the owner's support for another political candidate, and therefore abridged his freedom of association.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

Harvey Grossman

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Gary Feiersel

Justices for the Court

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

Justices Dissenting

Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

28 June 1996

Decision

The Court reversed the lower courts' rulings that free speech protections do not extend to government contractors, and remanded the case to the lower courts.

Impact

While this ruling may increase the risk of lawsuits against government employers, it also protects the freedoms of speech and association for independent contractors. These freedoms are particularly important in the late 1990s when government is contracting out more and more jobs.

Related Cases

Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968).
Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347 (1976).
Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507 (1980).
Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138 (1983).
Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, 497 U.S. 62 (1990).

Additional Topics

Inc. v. City of Northlake O'Hare Truck Service - Elrod, Branti, Rutan

Three Supreme Court cases defined these rights. In the first, Elrod v. Burns (1976), the Court held that public employees cannot be dismissed on the basis of their party affiliation. The Court found that patronage dismissals violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments. While employees' rights of political belief and affiliation are not absolute, the burden is on the government to show that it has …

Inc. v. City of Northlake O'Hare Truck Service - The Court's Judgment: Contractors Protected

The Court reversed the lower courts' ruling. Citing Elrod and Branti, Justice Kennedy wrote that "patronage does not justify the coercion of a person's political beliefs and associations." In such cases, in which affiliation is the sole basis of dismissal, there is no need to inquire whether the affiliation requirement was reasonable. However, he went on say that in cases that involve speech as w…

Inc. v. City of Northlake O'Hare Truck Service - Dissent: A Tradition Of Patronage

Justice Scalia filed a dissent, joined by Justice Thomas. He began with a quotation from his dissent in Rutan: When a practice not expressly prohibited by the text of the Bill of Rights bears the endorsement of a long tradition of open, widespread, and unchallenged use that dates back to the beginning of the Republic, we have no proper basis for striking it down.The Supreme Court was not the prope…

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