Pace v. Talley, No. 05-30528 (5th Cir. Nov. 21, 2006)
In a per curiam decision (an appellate opinion that does not identify the judge who authored it), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that school officials at a Louisiana high school did not violate a student’s constitutional rights by reporting the student’s alleged threat about school violence without first affording the student an opportunity to respond to the accusation. The court concluded that the student had failed to establish the violation of a clearly established constitutional right based on the right to the refute accusation of school violence prior to reporting the accusation to law enforcement. The Fifth Circuit also rejected the student’s claim that school officials violated his constitutional right to privacy by disseminating confidential information. The court found that the student had not shown that his expectation of privacy outweighed the public interest in school safety.
Pace v. Talley, No. 05-30528 (5th Cir. Nov. 21, 2006)
[Full opinion]