[color="Blue"]Fired employee settles lawsuit against Tampa

The former traffic maintenance specialist refused to remove a Confederate flag license plate.

By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published April 22, 2006

TAMPA - A former employee settled his federal lawsuit against the city, in which he claimed his First Amendment rights were violated when he was fired for refusing to remove a Confederate flag license plate from his personal pickup truck.

Larry Carpenter wanted to be rehired with back pay, according to the suit filed in March 2003.

Instead, he'll get $4,500, said Carpenter's attorney, Luke Lirot.

"It was a Pyrrhic victory," Lirot said. "The federal court agreed with us that the exhibition of this plate was protected by the First Amendment."

But because Carpenter was fired by a midlevel supervisor, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich ruled that Carpenter's dismissal didn't reflect an official policy or custom of the city of Tampa, Lirot said.

So Carpenter accepted the settlement.

"The city has never had a policy of squelching First Amendment rights," said Thomas Gonzalez, the outside counsel representing the city in the case.

Carpenter worked for Tampa for six years as a traffic maintenance specialist.

In the suit, Carpenter claimed to be a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a historical organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers. He used the license plate to show "pride in Southern heritage," the suit said.

But the tag unnerved some colleagues.

"A supervisor at a work site where there had been racial tension before responded to complaints from some workers who didn't like the tag," Gonzalez said.

In January 2002, a supervisor told Carpenter to remove the plate, according to court documents. A dispute ensued, and the city suspended Carpenter without pay on four occasions. The city fired him in September 2002 after he refused to remove the plate.
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My only question:
Why didn't the guy get his job back?

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/22/Hillsborough/Fired_employee_settle.shtml