Thad F. Brockett v. EFFINGHAM COUNTY, ILLINOIS and JIM NIEMANN

In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
____________________
No. 23-2360
T HAD F. BROCKETT ,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
EFFINGHAM C OUNTY, ILLINOIS and
J IM NIEMANN,
Defendants-Appellees.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
Southern District of Illinois.
No. 3:22-cv-00044-SMY — Staci M. Yandle, Judge.
____________________
A RGUED FEBRUARY 5, 2024 — D ECIDED A UGUST 29, 2024
____________________
Before R OVNER , BRENNAN, and K IRSCH , Circuit Judges.
R OVNER , Circuit Judge. Thad Brockett, a sheriff’s depart-
ment employee, alleges he was terminated for supporting the
former sheriff in disputes between the sheriff and the county
chair, and for reporting misbehavior by two correctional of-
ficers under his supervision. For several decades, the Su-
preme Court has been fine tuning the scales that weigh a pub-
lic employee’s free speech rights under the First Amendment

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2 No. 23-2360
against the government’s need to efficiently and effectively
provide services to its citizens. Brockett’s appeal of the district
court’s dismissal of this case might have provided an oppor-
tunity to balance these competing interests once more. Our
adversarial system, however, requires parties to present us
with arguments minimally demonstrating that they are enti-
tled to relief. Without that, we have no choice but to find that
claims have been waived, as we do here.
I.
Brockett worked in the Effingham County, Illinois Sher-
iff’s Department from July 1996 until December 2014. In 2012,
his supervisor, Sheriff John Monnet, promoted him to Opera-
tions Sergeant where he supervised and oversaw jail, telecom-
munications, and court security personnel. Defendant Jim
Niemann took office as Chairman of the Effingham County
Board in 2012. These facts are undisputed. For the remainder
of the facts, for purposes of this motion to dismiss, we accept
Brockett’s facts as true and draw reasonable inferences in his
favor. Esco v. City of Chicago, 107 F.4th 673, 678 (7th Cir. 2024).
We note that we have gathered many of these facts directly
from the complaint, as Brockett’s brief failed to cite to the rec-
ord as required by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(6);
see also Boutros v. Avis Rent a Car Sys., LLC, 802 F.3d 918, 924
(7th Cir. 2015).
According to Brockett, upon taking office, Niemann at-
tempted to interfere with, control, and manipulate the opera-
tions of the Sheriff’s Department over the objections of Sheriff
Monnet, and publicly accused the Sheriff of mismanaging
public funds and converting public property. Niemann and
other members of the County Board, the Sheriff’s office, and

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No. 23-2360 3
the public were aware that Brockett supported Sheriff Monnet
in his disputes with Niemann and the Board members.
In early 2013, Sheriff Monnet terminated two Effingham
County correctional officers after an investigation led by
Brockett uncovered inmate safety and security procedure vi-
olations. Brockett alleges that due to the defendants’ de-
mands, the officers were later reinstated. In mid-2013, Brock-
ett conducted another investigation of the same two correc-
tional officers, collecting evidence that they sexually harassed
female inmates to obtain or attempt to obtain sexual favors.
Brockett reported his new findings, along with the original
findings, to the Sheriff, the Effingham County State’s Attor-
ney, the Illinois State Police, the FBI, an Assistant United
States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, the Office
of the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor, coworkers not in the
chain of command in the Sheriff’s Department, and to mem-
bers of the public. Nevertheless, Niemann and the Board
shielded the officers from discipline and prosecution.
In early 2014, Niemann, with approval of the Board, suc-
cessfully initiated proceedings with the Illinois Labor Rela-
tions Board to have Brockett removed from the union so that
he could be terminated without union protection. The newly
elected Sheriff, David Mahon, took office on December 1,
2014, and discharged Brockett two weeks later, claiming that
the Board had deleted funding for the position of Operations
Sergeant. Brockett alleged that this rationale was pretextual,
and that the defendants were, in fact, retaliating against him
for exercising his First Amendment rights by supporting
Sheriff Monnet, and by reporting the correctional officers’ un-
lawful acts.

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4 No. 23-2360
Brockett sued Niemann and the County pursuant to 42
U.S.C. § 1983, alleging a claim of First Amendment retaliation.
The district court determined first that Brockett’s speech per-
tained to matters personal to Brockett and not to matters of
public concern, and second, that his speech was made pursu-
ant to his official duties and not as a private citizen. For these
reasons, the court concluded that Brockett’s speech was not
protected by the First Amendment. Brockett appealed but has
failed to provide this court with anything more than the most
cursory arguments. We therefore affirm the district court’s
grant of the defendants’ motion to dismiss, but for alternate
reasons.
II.
Public employees do not relinquish their First
Amendment rights by accepting government employment.
Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 417 (2006). On the other hand,
government employers, like all employers, must be able to
curtail speech that interferes with the operations of the
government entity in order to promote “the efficiency of the
public services it performs through its employees.” Pickering
v. Bd. of Ed. of Twp. High Sch. Dist. 205, 391 U.S. 563, 568 (1968).
The Supreme Court’s major analyses of public employee free
speech began with Pickering and was modified by Connick v.
Myers, 461 U.S. 138 (1983)—the two cases together forming
the now-well-known balancing test which weighs a public
employee’s interest in freedom of speech against the
government’s interest in the efficient provision of services. In
the Pickering-Connick framework, a court must first ask if the
employee spoke (1) as a private citizen and (2) on a matter of
public concern. Connick, 461 U.S. at 147; Pickering, 391 U.S. at
568. If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” then the

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No. 23-2360 5
employee has no First Amendment cause of action. Garcetti,
547 U.S. at 418. If both are true, then the court goes on to ask
whether “the interest of the state, as an employer, in
promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs
through its employees” outweighs “the interests of the
[employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of
public concern.” Pickering, 391 U.S. at 568. In Garcetti the court
further clarified, that “when public employees make
statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are
not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and
the Constitution does not insulate their communications from
employer discipline.” Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 421.
The Supreme Court has noted, “conducting these inquir-
ies sometimes has proved difficult.” Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 418;
see Kingman v. Frederickson, 40 F.4th 597, 602 (7th Cir. 2022)
(noting that determining whether the Free Speech Clause pro-
tected the plaintiff’s complaints about the city administrator
was not “an easy task”). Yet despite these complexities,
Brockett does not engage with any analysis of the First
Amendment issues. For example, the substance of his argu-
ment on the first issue—whether the speech constituted a
matter of public concern—consists of only four sentences.
They are as follows:
It appears that the district court failed to apply
the above principle [of accepting as true all well-
pleaded facts and resolving all reasonable infer-
ences in the plaintiff’s favor], and that the con-
clusion that a dispute between a Sheriff versus
the Chairman of the County Board and the
County Board over alleged conversion of public
property and mismanagement of public funds

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6 No. 23-2360
was not a matter of public concern was fash-
ioned from whole cloth with no basis in fact or
law.
No case cited by the district court supports the
district court’s position on this “public concern”
issue. There are no facts alleged in the Amended
Complaint which support the district court’s
conclusion.
Moreover, political activity is protected by the
First Amendment regardless of the employment
status of the Plaintiff. Heffernan v. City of Patter-
son. 136 S. Ct. 1412 (2016).
Brockett Br. at 9 (emphasis omitted).
Brockett does not set forth the elements of a First Amend-
ment retaliation claim. See Deeren v. Anderson, 72 F.4th 229, 235
(7th Cir. 2023). Nor does he assert that he meets the prerequi-
sites of Pickering-Connick balancing. He cites but one case on
speech as a matter of public concern, Heffernan, 578 U.S. at 266,
but only for the proposition that “political activity is protected
by the First Amendment.” Brockett Br. at 9. Political speech is
indeed protected by the First Amendment, but not always.
The limitations on protections of that speech for public em-
ployees can only be determined by looking at the require-
ments of Pickering, Connick, Garcetti, and their progeny, and
thus Brockett had to provide some argument that his speech
satisfied the requirements of Pickering and Connick.
Of course, in this case we are approaching these questions
in the context of a motion to dismiss, so the requirements of
Pickering and Connick must be viewed through the lens of our
liberal, undemanding pleading standard. To survive a motion

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No. 23-2360 7
to dismiss, a complaint must be plausible on its face, meaning
that the plaintiff must have pled “factual content that allows
the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant
is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S.
662, 678 (2009). A complaint need not contain detailed factual
allegations to meet that standard, but must go beyond mere
labels and conclusions, and must “be enough to raise a right
to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v.
Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007). Allegations that state “legal
conclusions” or “[t]hreadbare recitals of the elements of a
cause of action” are not entitled to the assumption of truth.
Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678.
Although the pleading standard is liberal, it is still the case
that a plaintiff challenging the dismissal of his complaint
must make an argument as to why the lower court erred in
finding that the complaint failed to state a claim on which re-
lief could be granted. “Thus, even a complaint that passes
muster under the liberal notice pleading requirements of Fed-
eral Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) can be subject to dismissal
if a plaintiff does not provide argument in support of the legal
adequacy of the complaint.” Lee v. Ne. Ill. Reg'l Commuter R.R.
Corp., 912 F.3d 1049, 1053–54 (7th Cir. 2019). In Lee, we noted
that the plaintiffs spent “significant time discussing the liber-
alness of the federal pleading standard, arguing that too much
was expected of them at the pleading stage,” but they “fail[ed]
to provide argument that each claim satisfied the pleading
standard.” Id. We held that the plaintiff’s failure to grapple

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8 No. 23-2360
with the legal issues that the defendants raised on appeal re-
sulted in waiver. Id.1
Brockett’s primary argument is “that no case cited by the
district court supports the district court’s position on this
‘public concern’ issue.” Brockett Br. at 9. But he does not tell
us why those cases do not support the district court’s position,
or, more importantly, which cases do support his argument.
Likewise, he says that “[t]here are no facts alleged in the
Amended Complaint which support the district court’s con-
clusion.” Id. This is an odd argument, as it is Brockett’s duty
to allege facts showing his entitlement to relief, and he fails to
tell us which facts alleged in the complaint do that, and why.
Brockett wholly ignores the Federal Rules of Appellate Proce-
dure requirement that his argument contain “appellant’s con-
tentions and the reasons for them, with citations to the author-
ities and parts of the record on which the appellant relies.”
1 We should not confuse the requirement for a party opposing a mo-
tion to dismiss to “provide argument in support of the legal adequacy of
the complaint” (Lee, 912 F.3d at 1053–54) with the district court’s respon-
sibilities upon reviewing such a motion. To be sure, we have held that a
district court may not grant a motion to dismiss solely because there is no
response from the non-movant. Marcure v. Lynn, 992 F.3d 625, 631 (7th Cir.
2021). It is the movant’s burden, after all, to demonstrate an entitlement to
relief on the motion to dismiss. Id. The district court has an independent
duty to evaluate whether the movant has met that burden. In this appeal,
however, we are not evaluating whether the district court erred by grant-
ing relief solely based on the non-movant’s failure to respond at all. The
district court evaluated the motion to dismiss and concluded that the
claim should be dismissed on the merits. Brockett has appealed that deci-
sion, telling us that the district court wrongly granted the motion to dis-
miss. On appeal, he now has an obligation to tell us why he believes the
district court erred.

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No. 23-2360 9
Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8)(A). This alone, should be grounds for
dismissal. See Boutros, 802 F.3d at 924.
Our review on a motion to dismiss is de novo, so we must
consider a plaintiff’s arguments as to the sufficiency of his
complaint anew. Kubiak v. City of Chicago, 810 F.3d 476, 480
(7th Cir. 2016). Where a plaintiff, on appeal, offers only a few
cursory sentences, we cannot properly perform our review,
and “[w]e will not fill this void by crafting arguments and
performing the necessary legal research.” Shipley v. Chicago
Bd. of Election Comm’rs, 947 F.3d 1056, 1062–63 (7th Cir. 2020)
(quoting Fednav Int'l Ltd. v. Cont'l Ins. Co., 624 F.3d 834, 842
(7th Cir. 2010)). “In our adversarial system of adjudication …
we rely on the parties to frame the issues” as our system “is
designed around the premise that parties represented by
competent counsel know what is best for them, and are re-
sponsible for advancing the facts and argument entitling
them to relief.” United States v. Sineneng-Smith, 140 S. Ct. 1575,
1579 (2020) (cleaned up). Therefore, “[a]rguments that are un-
derdeveloped, cursory, and lack supporting authority are
waived.” Shipley, 947 F.3d at 1063. And even arguments that
have been raised in the district court may still be waived on
appeal if they are underdeveloped here. Puffer v. Allstate Ins.
Co., 675 F.3d 709, 718 (7th Cir. 2012); see also Ostrowski v. Lake
Cnty., 33 F.4th 960, 966 (7th Cir. 2022) (appellate court held
claim was forfeited when appellate brief barely touched on
the statutory basis for the claim even where that basis had
been raised in the complaint). As the focus sharpens on ap-
peal, an appellate court requires “more information and more
comprehensive analysis than was provided for the district
judge,” not less. Salve Regina Coll. v. Russell, 499 U.S. 225, 232
(1991).

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10 No. 23-2360
Because Brockett’s argument in his “speech as a matter of
public concern” section is waived, we do not need to inde-
pendently evaluate whether he also waived his argument that
he was speaking as a private citizen and not pursuant to his
duties. The Pickering-Connick test requires satisfaction of both
prongs of the two-part prerequisites to balancing. Garcetti, 547
U.S. at 418; Connick, 461 U.S. at 146.
Despite our holding, we must stress that there is no magic
number of words, sentences or cases that a litigant must pro-
vide to the court to defeat a motion to dismiss. We encourage
concise and efficient briefing. But at the same time, if a litigant
has come to the court to assert that a district court judge erred
when granting a motion to dismiss, that litigant must engage
in a legal argument telling us why. Our adversarial system
relies on counsel to advance arguments entitling them to re-
lief. Sineneng-Smith, 140 S. Ct. at 1579. The judgment of the
district court is therefore AFFIRMED.

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