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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Heffernan v. City of Paterson, N.J.
Citation:
578 U.S. 1412 (2016)Facts
In 2005, Jeffrey Heffernan was a detective in the Paterson, New Jersey police department working in the office of Police Chief James Wittig. The incumbent mayor, Jose Torres, who had appointed Chief Wittig, was running for reelection against Lawrence Spagnola, who was Heffernan’s friend. When Heffernan’s bedridden mother asked him to get her a replacement Spagnola yard sign after her original one was stolen, Heffernan went to Spagnola’s campaign distribution point while off duty. Other police officers saw Heffernan with the sign talking to campaign workers, and word spread throughout the department. The next day, Heffernan’s supervisors demoted him from detective to patrol officer and assigned him to a “walking post” as punishment for what they perceived as his “overt involvement” in Spagnola’s campaign, despite the fact that Heffernan was not actually involved in the campaign and had only picked up the sign as a favor for his mother.
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