No. 24-1229

Denise A. Canzoneri v. Prescott Unified School District, et al.

Lower Court: Ninth Circuit
Docketed: 2025-06-03
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Tags: clearly-established factual-allegations first-amendment light-most-favorable motion-to-dismiss qualified-immunity
Key Terms:
SocialSecurity FirstAmendment
Latest Conference: 2025-09-29
Question Presented (AI Summary)

At the motion to dismiss stage, can a court disregard the 'light most favorable' standard and require the plaintiff to prove her rights were 'clearly established' based on unfavorably interpreted facts?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

1. At the motion to dismiss stage, all factual allegations in the complaint must be viewed as true and resolved in a light most favorable for the plaintiff. When assessing qualified immunity at the motion to dismiss stage, can a court di sregard this “light most favorable” standard and require the plaintiff to prove her rights were “clearly established” based on unfavorably interpreted facts? 2. When analyzing First Amendment employment retaliation cases, courts generally utilize a four/five step test to determine if an employee suffered adverse employment actions due to protected speech. In the instant case, the Ninth Circuit ruled against Petitioner on qualified immunity, seemingly because Petitioner did not provide analogous caselaw to each and every prong of the five -step test. In analyzing qualified immunity’s second prong, should courts look for cases with generally analogous fact s, viewing the case as a whole? Or should courts an alyze, separately for each prong of qualified immunity, whether factually similar case law exists?

Docket Entries

2025-10-06
Petition DENIED.
2025-07-16
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2025.
2025-05-29
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due July 3, 2025)
2025-04-07
Application (24A952) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until May 29, 2025.
2025-04-03
Application (24A952) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from April 3, 2025 to May 29, 2025, submitted to Justice Kagan.

Attorneys

Denise A. Canzoneri
Michael Jesse PérezPerez Vaughn and Feasby Inc., Petitioner