United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

____________ FILED August 16, 2023 No. 22-30490 Lyle W. Cayce ____________ Clerk

Katelynn McLin,

Plaintiff—Appellant,

versus

Twenty-First Judicial District; Robert H. Morrison, III,

Defendants—Appellees. ______________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana USDC No. 3:21-CV-411 ______________________________

Before Higginbotham, Graves, and Douglas, Circuit Judges. Patrick E. Higginbotham, Circuit Judge: In this employment dispute, the district court dismissed with prejudice a suit brought by Katelynn McLin against the Louisiana Twenty-First Judicial District and its former Chief Judge Robert Morrison, concluding that: (1) the Twenty-First Judicial District lacked the capacity to be sued; (2) McLin failed to plausibly allege that she was treated differently from anyone else; and, (3) Chief Judge Morrison was entitled to qualified immunity. McLin now appeals. We AFFIRM. Case: 22-30490 Document: 00516860566 Page: 2 Date Filed: 08/16/2023

No. 22-30490

I. A. McLin is a White female previously employed by Louisiana’s Twenty- First Judicial District.1 On November 13, 2020, McLin attended a clerical staff luncheon convened by the Twenty-First Judicial District. During the luncheon, the Judicial Administrator Sara Brumfield publicly praised McLin for her work performance. McLin sat next to T.D. at the luncheon, a Black colleague whom she had never met. At the end of the lunch, McLin stated that it was “time to go back to LP and deal with the LPians.” McLin alleges that “LPians” refers to citizens of Livingston Parish, and that she did not use that term “objectively or intend[ing] to be offensive, racially charged, or antagonistic in any possible sense.” The Parties do not suggest the use of “LPians” has any racial connotation. Accepting Plaintiff’s pleading as true, it either lacks a racial element or none was intended. Yet the comment prompted T.D. to search for McLin’s social media. While searching through McLin’s Facebook posts, T.D. noticed an article McLin reposted regarding a motorist on I-244 who drove his vehicle and horse trailer through a blockade of protestors rallying in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. In the post, McLin, who herself keeps and trains horses and drives a truck with a horse trailer, posted “All I’m going to say is

_____________________ 1 Her employment was “at will” and “may be terminated by either the Court or the employee at any time, for any reason not prohibited by law.” McLin began her career with the Twenty-First Judicial District as a collection’s department collector. At the time of her termination, she had been promoted to a Hearing Officer’s Secretary.

2 Case: 22-30490 Document: 00516860566 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/16/2023

No. 22-30490