David P. Demarest v. Town of Underhill, Vermont, et al.
1. When a property owner exercises his First Amendment right to speak out at public meetings, does it violate that Constitutional guarantee when the governmental body punishes the citizen by interfering with access to his property?
2. When local government treats similarly situated property owners differently for no valid reason, particularly when some of those other, comparator-owners are officials or employees of the very agency engaging in the disparate treatment, has a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection guarantee occurred?
3. In order to state an equal protection claim under the Court's standards for a "class of one," is it sufficient for the complaint to allege different treatment for similarly situated parties? Is the inequality exacerbated when the comparators are officials of the defendant government agency and profit from the differential treatment?
When a property owner exercises his First Amendment right to speak out at public meetings, does it violate that Constitutional guarantee when the governmental body punishes the citizen by interfering with access to his property?