Jeffrey A. Clouser v. Kim Doherty, et al.

I. A Delaware Department of Education official, sued in his official and individual-capacities, knowingly disregarded available results of a State Police investigation exonerating Petitioner, a teacher, yet the official published information imputing Petitioner as a criminal of sexual misconduct to Delaware’s Secretary of Education and to potential employers nationwide via a searchable database of educator misconduct. Summary judgment was granted to Respondents on sovereign immunity grounds. Does the Delaware Supreme Court’s application of protection offered to the State by the doctrine of sovereign immunity under Del. Const. art. I, § 9, Delaware State Tort Claims Act (10 Del. C. § 4001), and Insurance for the Protection of the State (18 Del. C. § 6511), unconstitutionally place State financial interests above the fundamental rights and liberties guaranteed to individuals under the United States and Delaware Constitutions, ultimately turning a shield into a sword? II. Is it possible for a state official, sued in his official and individual-capacities, to maintain sovereign immunity and qualified privilege defenses, when he is knowingly defrauding the state, compromising state interests, defying the officials’ code of conduct, and consciously disregarding an individual’s Federal and State constitutional rights through the conduct in question?