164019P.pdf   04/24/2018  Gerald H. Groenewold, Ph.D.  v.  Robert O. Kelley, Ph.D.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  16-4019
   U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota - Fargo   
   [PUBLISHED] [Wollman, Author, with Loken and Melloy, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Employment and civil rights. In action by former director of 
   the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North 
   Dakota alleging he was terminated in retaliation for exercising his First 
   Amendment rights and in violation of his Fourteenth Amendment due process 
   rights, the district court did not err in dismissing the action for 
   failure to allege a constitutional violation; plaintiff's speech was made 
   pursuant to his professional duties and in the furtherance of those duties 
   and was not protected by the First Amendment; the pre- and 
   post-termination procedures used in plaintiff's termination provided 
   procedural due process and did not violate plaintiff's Fourteenth 
   Amendment due process rights; plaintiff failed to establish a substantive 
   due process claim because he failed to show defendant's decision to 
   terminate him was both "conscience shocking" and in violation of a 
   fundamental right; further, the termination had a basis in fact as shown 
   by plaintiff's own admissions concerning his actions; as plaintiff failed 
   to allege defendant violated his constitutional rights, the district court 
   properly dismissed the individual capacity claims against defendant; nor 
   did the district court err in dismissing the claims against defendants in 
   their official capacity as there was no constitutional violation to 
   support a Section 1983 claim.