Through the State and Local Legal Center, NACo joined several of its sister organizations in filing an amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that could affect state and local governments’ ability to hire affordable, high-quality outside legal counsel. The issue in Filarsky v. Delia is whether an attorney hired by a local government to conduct an internal affairs investigation can be sued for violating someone’s constitutional rights, when the same attorney could not be sued if he or she were the government’s in-house counsel.
The U. S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied qualified immunity to private attorney Steve Filarsky when his advice to the city of Rialto, Calif. in investigating a city employee led to an illegal search. NACo’s brief informs the Supreme Court that local governments frequently hire outside counsel and that outside attorneys are likely to raise their rates or even refuse to represent governments if they can be sued for the legal advice they give to government clients on complicated constitutional matters.
Geoffrey Eaton, Jacob Loshin and John Stith of the law firm Winston & Strawn wrote the brief, which was also signed onto by the National League of Cities, the United States Conference of Mayors, the International City/County Management Association, the International Municipal Lawyers Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National School Boards Association.
The State and Local Legal Center is another benefit of membership in NACo since it is funded partially through member dues. The center files amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in cases of importance to state and local governments. For more information about the case or the center, contact Ed Ferguson at 202.942.4214 or at ed.ferguson@naco.org.