Seventh Circuit Affirms Person on Substitute Teacher List Has No Standing for Prospective Relief from Educational Institution

Per Piggee v. Carl Sandburg College, 464 F.3d 667 (7th Cir. Sept. 19, 2006):

In September 2002, Martha Louise Piggee, who was then a part-time instructor of cosmetology at Carl Sandburg College, gave a gay student two religious pamphlets on the sinfulness of homosexuality. The student was offended and complained to college officials. After the college looked into the matter, it found that Piggee had sexually harassed the student. It admonished her in a letter to cease such behavior, and the following semester it chose not to retain her. . . .

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The district court . . . thought that Piggee lacked standing to ask for an injunction against the college's actions, because by the time she filed her complaint in October 2003 she had already been off the college's payroll for a year. Insofar as she was seeking prospective equitable relief, we agree with the district court that the possibility of any future injury was indeed too remote. Piggee responds only that she remains on the substitute teacher list, and thus that she could be called up any time. But she has not been invited to teach at Carl Sandburg College since December 2002. We conclude that she cannot show that she "is immediately in danger of sustaining some direct injury as a result of the challenged official conduct and the injury or threat of injury ... is both real and immediate, not conjectural or hypothetical."