Judge Denise Cote
Homeland Security employee Bamba’s duties included review and audit of financial accounts and transactions. After reporting suspicious transactions to his superiors, DHS officials allegedly conspired to terminate his employment through use of a stale Florida arrest warrant issued in 2007. Bamba’s superior purportedly directed him to Florida’s capital to address the warrant. Bamba was arrested under a warrant issued by Florida prosecutor Ambrahamsen. As a result of the charges, he was put on leave and later suspended indefinitely. The charges were dismissed in July 2011. District court dismissed Bamba’s 42 USC §1983 suit. His constitutional claims against DHS and individual federal defendants were barred by sovereign immunity, and Bamba did not identify authority for the proposition that a federal employee has a property interest in his job subject to protection under the U.S. Constitution’s takings clause. Neither could a §1983 claim nor Bivens action be pursued against the individual federal defendants, who did not act under color of state law. Bamba’s §1983 claim against Florida was dismissed because a state cannot be used under §1983. Further, Abrahamsen was entitled to absolute immunity.
