Did the conduct alleged violate Santanas constitutional right?
Santana asserts that the defendants violated her Fourteenth Amendment right to due process when they terminated her employment without affording her a pre-termination hearing. This claim rests on the proposition that Santana possessed a property interest in her employment as Executive Director of the HRODC. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, a state is prohibited from discharging a public employee who possesses a property interest in continued employment without due process of law. Cleveland Bd. of Educ. v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 538 (1985) (holding that a public employee classified as a “civil servant” under Ohio law has a property interest in continued employment, of which the State cannot deprive him without due process). However, the Constitution does not create property interests; instead, “they are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law.” Bd. of Regents of State Coll. v. Roth, 408 U.S. 56
