The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled qualified immunity protects an Alabama school superintendent accused of passing over a teacher for promotion after her father, a county commissioner, criticized the school board in the local newspaper.

Even if Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski did decline to promote teacher Lynda Gaines because of her father's comments, claims that her First Amendment free speech and intimate association rights were violated cannot overcome Wardynski's immunity, according to the opinion.

“Qualified immunity protects all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate federal law; it does not extend to one who knew or reasonably should have known that his or her actions would violate the plaintiff's federal rights,” wrote Senior Judge E. Carl Vinson of Florida's Northern District, sitting by designation, with the concurrence of Judges Julie Carnes and Adalberto Jordan.