Judge Declares ODA's Alan Contreras a Civil Rights Violator

[Karl Watanabe]

Judge Declares ODA's Alan Contreras a Civil Rights Violator

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0335975P.pdf

Melinda Benton ("plaintiff") is a professor at a community college in Oregon. She holds a degree from Bob Jones University, an unaccredited institution that emphasizes conservative values....

Plaintiff brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983. Plaintiff brought this 1983 action as a class action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. Plaintiff alleged seven claims for violation of the federal and state constitutional rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, due process and equal protection. These claims were predicated upon allegations that the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization had decreed that plaintiff should be fired from her position at the college because her degree was "illegal" or face criminal sanctions and then later decreed that plaintiff need not be fired but must give a disclaimer regarding her degrees.

Plaintiff initially named four defendants: the Oregon Department of Education, the Oregon Student Assistance Commission, the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization and Alan Contreras, the administrator of the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, in his official and individual capacities....

After a bench trial, the district court found that defendant Contreras had violated plaintiff's constitutional rights. Specifically, the district court concluded that defendant "Contreras' application of the regulations to plaintiff's degrees resulted not from an intent to achieve the goals of the regulations, but because of bias toward the institution from which they were received." That finding is not challenged on appeal....