Amy Harnishfeger v. United States ( 2019 )


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  •                               In the
    United States Court of Appeals
    For the Seventh Circuit
    ____________________
    No. 18‐1865
    AMY HARNISHFEGER,
    Plaintiff‐Appellant,
    v.
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al.,
    Defendants‐Appellees.
    ____________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court for the
    Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division.
    No. 1:16‐cv‐03035‐TWP‐DLP — Tanya Walton Pratt, Judge.
    ____________________
    ARGUED NOVEMBER 28, 2018 — DECIDED DECEMBER 3, 2019
    ____________________
    Before ROVNER, HAMILTON, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.
    HAMILTON, Circuit Judge. This appeal deals with First
    Amendment protection for public employees when they en‐
    gage in speech that is not related or tied to their work. Plaintiff
    Amy Harnishfeger authored a short book, published under a
    pseudonym, about her time as a phone‐sex operator called
    Conversations with Monsters: 5 Chilling, Depraved and Deviant
    Phone Sex Conversations. A month after publishing Conversa‐
    tions, Harnishfeger began what was to have been a one‐year
    2                                                  No. 18‐1865
    stint with the Indiana Army National Guard as a member of
    the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program, a fed‐
    eral antipoverty program administered by the Corporation
    for National and Community Service (CNCS).
    But when Harnishfeger’s National Guard supervisor dis‐
    covered Conversations and identified Harnishfeger as its au‐
    thor, she demanded that CNCS remove Harnishfeger from
    her position. CNCS complied. Harnishfeger was unable to
    find another suitable placement for the remainder of her
    VISTA service, so, three months after she started, CNCS cut
    her from the program entirely. Harnishfeger filed this suit al‐
    leging violations of her rights under the First Amendment
    and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The district
    court granted the defendants’ motions for summary judg‐
    ment. Harnishfeger v. United States, 
    2018 WL 1532691
     (S.D. Ind.
    March 29, 2018). Harnishfeger appeals.
    We reverse in part and affirm in part. Conversations with
    Monsters is clearly protected speech, and on this record, a jury
    could find that Harnishfeger’s National Guard supervisor,
    Lieutenant Colonel Lisa Kopczynski, infringed her free‐
    speech rights by removing her from her placement because of
    it. We find no basis, however, for holding CNCS or its em‐
    ployees liable, so we affirm the judgment in favor of the fed‐
    eral defendants.
    I. Factual Background
    A. Conversations with Monsters
    Because this appeal is from a grant of summary judgment,
    we state the facts and the inferences from them in the light
    most favorable to Harnishfeger. A little more than a decade
    ago, Harnishfeger found herself unemployed and
    No. 18‐1865                                                    3
    “disgruntled with the thought of working for ‘the man’ any
    longer,” as she wrote in the introduction to Conversations. She
    decided to try phone‐sex work, but quickly discovered it was
    not the “flirty fun” the phone‐sex industry held it out to be.
    Harnishfeger was horrified to hear what some of the callers
    would fantasize to her about, including sexual abuse of chil‐
    dren.
    These “vile, unrepentant, disgusting poor excuses for
    men” (and one woman) are the “monsters” of whom she
    wrote in Conversations. Harnishfeger did not mince words: “if
    you’re getting off at the thought of hurting a child . . . , there
    is something clearly unfit for this world in you and you need
    to end things once and for all.” Conversations recounted five of
    Harnishfeger’s most horrifying phone‐sex calls and medi‐
    tated on the social role of phone‐sex operators and on her own
    experiences as one of them.
    Harnishfeger published Conversations with Monsters in
    May 2016 by making it available for sale in electronic form on
    Amazon, an online marketplace. On June 2, 2016 Harnish‐
    feger announced publication of her book on her page on Face‐
    book, a social networking website, with a link to the book’s
    page on Amazon. Harnishfeger’s Facebook page was “set to
    private,” meaning that only Facebook users whom Harnish‐
    feger designated as her “friends” could view what she posted
    there. Others viewing Harnishfeger’s Facebook page would
    see only very general information about her.
    Because Conversations was published pseudonymously,
    only Harnishfeger’s Facebook “friends” could tie her to it.
    Even they, however, would have had to do a bit of hunting to
    find a reference to it unless they had seen the publication an‐
    nouncement soon after it was posted. A Facebook user’s posts
    4                                                         No. 18‐1865
    appear on her page chronologically from most recent to least
    recent, so Harnishfeger’s “quite frequent” Facebook activity
    would have buried the publication announcement under flur‐
    ries of more recent posts “as little as a week or two” after it
    was made.
    B. VISTA
    Shortly after publishing Conversations with Monsters,
    Harnishfeger was selected to participate in the VISTA pro‐
    gram. The VISTA program is a part of AmeriCorps, a federal
    network of hundreds of programs across the nation. It is
    sometimes called “the domestic Peace Corps.” VISTA mem‐
    bers serve full‐time for a year at non‐profit organizations or
    local government agencies to help them carry out programs
    to alleviate poverty. AmeriCorps is administered by CNCS, a
    federal agency that leads service, volunteering, and grant‐
    making efforts in the United States.1
    Prospective VISTA members apply directly to CNCS. If se‐
    lected to participate in the program, members apply sepa‐
    rately to work with a sponsoring organization pre‐approved
    by CNCS. In Indiana, for example, the twenty‐three organiza‐
    tions approved for VISTA sponsorship in 2016 included vari‐
    ous charities, the Indianapolis Public Schools, and the Indiana
    Army National Guard. VISTA members/volunteers do not
    1    See     AmeriCorps       FAQs,    CNCS,    https://www.national‐
    service.gov/programs/americorps/americorps‐faqs (last visited Dec. 3,
    2019); AmeriCorps VISTA FAQs, CNCS, https://nationalservice.gov/pro‐
    grams/americorps/americorps‐programs/americorps‐vista/americorps‐
    vista‐faqs (last visited Dec. 3, 2019); About CNCS, https://www.national‐
    service.gov/about (last visited Dec. 3, 2019).
    No. 18‐1865                                                  5
    receive a salary, but they do receive a number of benefits, in‐
    cluding a small monthly living allowance.
    C. Harnishfeger’s Short VISTA Career
    Harnishfeger had applied to and been accepted by CNCS
    as a VISTA volunteer sponsored by the Indiana Army Na‐
    tional Guard. She began her VISTA service with the Guard’s
    Family Program Office in Indianapolis on June 24, 2016.
    Harnishfeger was responsible for maintaining a database of
    information on service providers to whom veterans and their
    families could turn for help. Much of the underlying infor‐
    mation had already been gathered by the Guard’s previous
    VISTA volunteer. If it had not been, Harnishfeger would
    glean the information herself from public sources. She would
    then enter it into the database. The information was made
    publicly available on the Guard’s website.
    Occasionally—perhaps a dozen times over the course of
    three months—Harnishfeger was unable to find an item of in‐
    formation she needed, such as a service provider’s telephone
    number or physical address. In those cases, Harnishfeger con‐
    tacted the service provider directly, usually by telephone or
    email.
    In two cases, Harnishfeger could find no contact infor‐
    mation for the service provider at all, so, using her own Face‐
    book account, she posted a comment to the provider’s Face‐
    book page asking for the information she needed. For exam‐
    ple, on August 26, she posted a message to the Facebook page
    of an organization called PACT—Hoosier Hills asking for an
    office email address. The comment identified Harnishfeger as
    a “VISTA volunteer.”
    6                                                 No. 18‐1865
    To post these comments requesting information, Harnish‐
    feger was not required to, and did not, designate the service
    providers as her Facebook “friends.” Because her Facebook
    account was private, neither the provider’s Facebook account
    manager nor any other members of the public viewing her
    comments were able to view Harnishfeger’s posts to her own
    Facebook page, including her earlier post about Conversations.
    During her three months of VISTA service with the Guard,
    these dozen contacts were the only occasions on which
    Harnishfeger interacted with members of the public on the
    Guard’s behalf. Otherwise, she sat at a computer and entered
    data. She performed her duties to the Guard’s satisfaction.
    D. Harnishfeger’s Termination from VISTA
    That likely would have been the story of Harnishfeger’s
    entire year with the Guard. But then Noelle Butler, Harnish‐
    feger’s direct supervisor, asked to become her Facebook
    “friend.” Harnishfeger felt she could not reject this request
    from her quasi‐employer. She accepted Butler’s “friend re‐
    quest” and thereby gave Butler access to all of her “friends‐
    only” Facebook activity.
    In mid‐ to late September, Butler explored Harnishfeger’s
    Facebook history deeply enough—through “many dozens, if
    not hundreds” of posts—to come upon her post of June 2 an‐
    nouncing the publication of Conversations with Monsters. Over
    her lunch break one day, “[o]ut of curiosity about this bizarre
    title,” Butler and another Guard employee followed the Ama‐
    zon link and purchased a copy of the book. On September 27,
    Butler and the other employee brought the book’s contents to
    the attention of Lieutenant Colonel Lisa Kopczynski, the
    Guard’s State Family Program Director.
    No. 18‐1865                                                 7
    On September 28, Lt. Col. Kopczynski wrote a letter to
    Emily Kubiszewski, a State Program Officer for CNCS who
    was Harnishfeger’s point of contact with the VISTA program.
    Kopczynski requested that Harnishfeger be removed from the
    VISTA placement or be terminated early for cause. Referring
    to Conversations, Kopczynski explained that “activities and
    conduct found” on Harnishfeger’s Facebook page did not “fa‐
    vorably represent” the Guard’s Family Program Office.
    The next day, September 29, Harnishfeger met with Butler
    and Kopczynski. Kopczynski told her that Conversations with
    Monsters was “really horrible,” that she was not presenting
    the Guard “in a favorable light,” and that the Guard could not
    “have anyone find out about” her authorship of Conversations.
    Harnishfeger would therefore be removed from her VISTA
    placement with the Guard.
    The same day, Harnishfeger received a letter from Louis
    Lopez, Indiana State Program Director for CNCS, informing
    her that she had been removed from her VISTA placement
    and put on “Administrative Hold status” for up to 30 days,
    effective immediately. A week or so later, in early October,
    Kubiszewski told Harnishfeger that, although she would not
    be readmitted to her placement with the Guard, if she deac‐
    tivated her Facebook account, she would be permitted to seek
    another sponsor where she could complete her term of VISTA
    service. Harnishfeger accordingly deactivated her account.
    On October 6, Kubiszewski sent Harnishfeger a letter
    spelling out her prospects with the VISTA program. She gave
    Harnishfeger a list of approved VISTA sponsors in Indiana
    and nineteen days, until October 25, to find a new sponsor. If
    Harnishfeger could not secure reassignment before October
    8                                                  No. 18‐1865
    25, her VISTA participation would be terminated entirely, ef‐
    fective October 26.
    Harnishfeger contacted five of the twenty‐two potential
    sponsors available to her. One responded, but it was too far
    from Indianapolis to be feasible on Harnishfeger’s limited
    means. Harnishfeger thus failed to secure reassignment by
    the October 25 deadline. On that day, she received a second
    letter from Lopez informing her that her VISTA membership
    had been finally terminated “for lack of suitable assignment.”
    E. This Lawsuit
    Within two weeks, Harnishfeger sued Lopez, Ku‐
    biszewski, Kopczynski, and Butler in their personal and offi‐
    cial capacities, as well as the United States government, for
    violating her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amend‐
    ments and the Administrative Procedure Act, 
    5 U.S.C. § 706
    .
    The district court had jurisdiction of the case under 
    28 U.S.C. § 1331
     and § 1346.
    The personal‐capacity defendants (except Butler, who was
    later dismissed on Harnishfeger’s motion) moved to dismiss
    the complaint. The United States, as a named defendant and
    as the real target of official‐capacity claims against federal ac‐
    tors, Hafer v. Melo, 
    502 U.S. 21
    , 25–26 (1991), moved separately
    to dismiss the complaint or in the alternative for summary
    judgment. After converting the defendants’ motions to dis‐
    miss to motions for summary judgment, see Fed. R. Civ. P.
    12(d), the district court granted the defendants’ motions and
    entered final judgment in the defendants’ favor.
    II. Analysis
    Because the district court converted the defendants’ mo‐
    tions to dismiss to motions for summary judgment, we apply
    No. 18‐1865                                                   9
    the standard of review for grants of summary judgment.
    Washington v. Summerville, 
    127 F.3d 552
    , 557 (7th Cir. 1997). On
    the record before us, a reasonable jury could conclude that
    Lieutenant Colonel Kopczynski violated Harnishfeger’s con‐
    stitutional rights. Harnishfeger has a claim under 
    42 U.S.C. § 1983
     against Kopczynski as a state actor, and Kopczynski is
    not entitled to qualified immunity. We therefore reverse the
    judgment as to Kopczynski. By contrast, Harnishfeger failed
    to show a triable issue as to whether any federal defendant is
    responsible for a violation of her rights under the First
    Amendment or the APA. We affirm the judgment in their fa‐
    vor.
    A. First Amendment Claim Against Lt. Col. Kopczynski
    1. First Amendment Merits
    We begin with the First Amendment merits before turning
    to questions of Lieutenant Colonel Kopczynski’s personal lia‐
    bility. To prove a First Amendment retaliation claim, a public
    employee must establish three elements: first, that she en‐
    gaged in constitutionally protected speech; second, that she
    suffered a deprivation likely to deter protected speech; and
    third, that her protected speech was a motivating factor in the
    deprivation and ultimately, if the public employer cannot
    show it would have inflicted the deprivation anyway, its but‐
    for cause. See Graber v. Clarke, 
    763 F.3d 888
    , 894–95 (7th Cir.
    2014); Greene v. Doruff, 
    660 F.3d 975
    , 977–80 (7th Cir. 2011)
    (collecting causation cases); Massey v. Johnson, 
    457 F.3d 711
    ,
    716 (7th Cir. 2006). The first element—constitutionally pro‐
    tected speech— is the nub of this appeal; the second and third
    are uncontested as to Kopczynski.
    10                                                   No. 18‐1865
    Whether a public employee’s speech is constitutionally
    protected is a question of law, “even though it may . . . re‐
    quire[] predicate factual determinations.” Gustafson v. Jones,
    
    290 F.3d 895
    , 906 (7th Cir. 2002). For clarity, we note that “con‐
    stitutionally protected speech” has two different meanings in
    the doctrine. A public employee ultimately satisfies the pro‐
    tected‐speech element of a retaliation claim by prevailing in
    the balance of employee and employer interests required by
    Pickering v. Board of Education, 
    391 U.S. 563
     (1968). Our discus‐
    sion immediately below focuses on the threshold question
    whether Harnishfeger’s speech was constitutionally pro‐
    tected in the sense that the court needs to engage in Pickering
    balancing at all. We conclude that Conversations with Monsters
    was protected in both senses.
    a. Conversations Is Protected Under NTEU
    There are at least two routes to Pickering balancing. See
    City of San Diego v. Roe, 
    543 U.S. 77
    , 80 (2004). The better tra‐
    veled leads across the double threshold established by Con‐
    nick v. Myers, 
    461 U.S. 138
     (1983), and Garcetti v. Ceballos,
    
    547 U.S. 410
     (2006). The employee must show under Garcetti
    that she spoke as a citizen rather than an employee, 
    547 U.S. at 418
    , and under Connick that she spoke on a matter of public
    concern rather than “matters only of personal interest.”
    
    461 U.S. at 147
    .
    When the employee’s speech is neither at work nor about
    work, however, a different path to Pickering is available under
    United States v. National Treasury Employees Union, 
    513 U.S. 454
    (1995) (“NTEU”), largely anticipated in this circuit by Eber‐
    hardt v. O’Malley, 
    17 F.3d 1023
     (7th Cir. 1994). In NTEU, the
    Court struck down a federal law that prohibited federal em‐
    ployees from receiving honoraria for writing and speaking on
    No. 18‐1865                                                     11
    matters unrelated to their official duties. The NTEU record in‐
    cluded examples such as a mail handler who was paid for lec‐
    turing on Quaker history, an aerospace engineer who was
    paid for lecturing on African American history, and a biolo‐
    gist who earned money by writing and speaking about dance
    performances. 
    513 U.S. at 461
    . Justice Stevens’s opinion for the
    Court also reminded readers that authors Nathaniel Haw‐
    thorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Bret Harte had
    all published (and been paid for) their famous works while
    employed by various federal agencies. 
    Id.
     at 464–65.
    The key issues under NTEU are whether the employee’s
    speech is “made outside the workplace,” 
    id. at 466
    ; “involve[s]
    content largely unrelated to [her] government employment,”
    id.; and is “addressed to a public audience,” 
    id.,
     or, what
    amounts to the same thing, involves “any matter for which
    there is potentially a public.” Eberhardt, 
    17 F.3d at 1026
     (reject‐
    ing pre‐ and post‐publication distinction). If the employee
    shows these elements, and if the employer cannot show the
    employee’s speech was linked by her “deliberate steps” to the
    employer’s mission, purpose, or image, see Roe, 
    543 U.S. at 81
    ,
    then NTEU, not Connick, controls, and Pickering balancing ap‐
    plies.
    While Conversations may satisfy Connick as citizen speech
    on a matter of public concern, NTEU offers the easier and
    clearer path to decision. Harnishfeger’s book was written and
    published a month before she began her VISTA service. Its
    content is entirely unrelated to CNCS, VISTA, and the Guard.
    It was written for a general audience on the personal experi‐
    ences of sex workers and their social role, matters for which
    there is undoubtedly a public. Harnishfeger never
    12                                                 No. 18‐1865
    deliberately linked the book to her VISTA service, which had
    not even begun at the time of publication.
    Defendants try to distinguish NTEU by citing Roe and our
    decision in Craig v. Rich Township High School District 227,
    
    736 F.3d 1110
     (7th Cir. 2013), arguing that Harnishfeger delib‐
    erately linked Conversations with Monsters to her VISTA ser‐
    vice by “promoting [the book] on her Facebook page, where
    she held herself out as an employee of the Indiana National
    Guard and which she used to contact local family‐services or‐
    ganizations on behalf of the Guard.” This argument distorts
    the record and fails to give plaintiff the benefit of conflicting
    evidence and favorable inferences from the evidence.
    The plaintiff in Roe was a San Diego police officer who sold
    videos of himself on an online marketplace, stripping and
    masturbating in a police uniform and pantomiming police
    work. 
    543 U.S. at
    78–79. He sold these and other items, includ‐
    ing official San Diego police uniforms, under a user name that
    was “a wordplay on a high priority police radio call,” while
    identifying himself as employed in the field of law enforce‐
    ment. 
    Id.
     For these actions and for failing to comply with a
    resulting investigation by his employer, Roe was fired. He
    sued, alleging his firing violated the First Amendment. 
    Id. at 79
    .
    The Court concluded, summarily and unanimously, that
    the firing was permissible under either NTEU or Connick. 
    Id. at 80
    . “In NTEU it was established that the speech was unre‐
    lated to the employment and had no effect on the mission and
    purpose of the employer.” 
    Id.
     By contrast, although Roe’s ex‐
    pression “purported to be” unrelated to his employment, Roe
    himself had taken “deliberate steps to link his videos . . . to
    his police work, all in a way injurious to his employer.” 
    Id.
     at
    No. 18‐1865                                                  13
    81. The Court pointed to his use of a police uniform in his per‐
    formances, his allusive user name, his disclosure of law‐en‐
    forcement employment, and his “debased parody of an officer
    performing indecent acts while in the course of official duties”
    in finding that Roe’s expression “brought the mission of the
    employer and the professionalism of its officers into serious
    disrepute.” 
    Id.
     Put differently, “Roe’s expression was widely
    broadcast, linked to his official status as a police officer, and
    designed to exploit his employer’s image.” 
    Id. at 84
    .
    Similar linkage was critical in Craig, where the plaintiff
    was a former high school guidance counselor and girls’ bas‐
    ketball coach who had been fired from those positions for
    writing a book called It’s Her Fault, a “hypersexualized” tract
    dedicated to the proposition that, when men and women ex‐
    perience difficulties in romantic relationships, “it’s her fault.”
    736 F.3d at 1113–14. Affirming the district court’s dismissal of
    his complaint, we rejected Craig’s argument that his book was
    protected under NTEU.
    Craig had taken “‘deliberate steps to link’ his book with
    his work as a guidance counselor . . . .” Id. at 1118, quoting
    Roe, 
    543 U.S. at 81
    . Craig’s book cited his work as a counselor
    and coach as the basis for his claimed expertise; thanked his
    “students and clients” in the acknowledgments; contained a
    foreword written by a teacher at Craig’s school; and described
    the counseling Craig had provided “to thousands of students,
    parents, clients, and friends.” 
    Id.
     We held this material re‐
    flected “Craig’s conscious choice to connect ‘It’s Her Fault’ to
    his counseling position,” taking his book outside NTEU’s pro‐
    tection. 
    Id.
    The point of Roe and Craig is that the speaker‐employee
    cannot deliberately trade on her public employment while
    14                                                   No. 18‐1865
    claiming the speech is entirely unrelated. But NTEU would
    mean little indeed if its protection could be circumvented by
    merely identifying an author as a public employee. (Recall
    that Butler had to canvass “many dozens, if not hundreds” of
    Harnishfeger’s Facebook posts to find the Conversations pub‐
    lication announcement.) And simply nothing at all in Conver‐
    sations or its distribution is deliberately linked to the mission,
    purpose, or image of the Indiana Army National Guard or the
    VISTA program.
    Conversations was speech on a matter of public concern
    within the meaning of NTEU, and Harnishfeger is therefore
    entitled to Pickering balancing. The district court erred in
    reaching the contrary conclusion. That is not enough to re‐
    solve this appeal, however, as the district court ruled in the
    alternative that, even assuming Conversations was constitu‐
    tionally protected in the threshold sense, the Pickering balance
    weighed in the defendants’ favor. This ruling, too, was erro‐
    neous.
    b. The Pickering Balance Does Not Weigh in the De‐
    fendants’ Favor
    The challenge in public‐employee speech doctrine is “to
    arrive at a balance between the interests of the [employee], as
    a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and
    the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the ef‐
    ficiency of the public services it performs through its employ‐
    ees.” Pickering, 
    391 U.S. at 568
    . In deciding whether the bal‐
    ance should be struck in favor of speech or efficiency in a
    given case, we have examined seven factors:
    (1) whether the speech would create problems
    in maintaining discipline or harmony among
    No. 18‐1865                                                   15
    co‐workers; (2) whether the employment rela‐
    tionship is one in which personal loyalty and
    confidence are necessary; (3) whether the
    speech impeded the employee’s ability to per‐
    form her responsibilities; (4) the time, place and
    manner of the speech; (5) the context in which
    the underlying dispute arose; (6) whether the
    matter was one on which debate was vital to in‐
    formed decisionmaking; and (7) whether the
    speaker should be regarded as a member of the
    general public.
    Kristofek v. Village of Orland Hills, 
    832 F.3d 785
    , 796 (7th Cir.
    2016), quoting Greer v. Amesqua, 
    212 F.3d 358
    , 371 (7th Cir.
    2000). We need not address each factor in each case. 
    Id.,
     citing
    Graber v. Clarke, 
    763 F.3d 888
    , 896 (7th Cir. 2014).
    At trial, the public employer has the burden of showing by
    a preponderance of the evidence that this balance weighs in
    its favor. Gustafson v. Jones, 
    290 F.3d 895
    , 906, 909 (7th Cir.
    2002). Requiring proof by a preponderance of the evidence in‐
    dicates that the public employer’s burden is one of persua‐
    sion, not merely production, in the nature of an affirmative
    defense. See Gustafson v. Jones, 
    117 F.3d 1015
    , 1019 (7th Cir.
    1997) (“[P]urely as a matter of good pleading practice, we
    think it preferable to leave to the defendant the burden of rais‐
    ing justification [under Pickering] as an affirmative defense.”);
    see generally Schaffer ex rel. Schaffer v. Weast, 
    546 U.S. 49
    , 57
    (2005), citing FTC v. Morton Salt Co., 
    334 U.S. 37
    , 44–45 (1948)
    (“[T]he burden of persuasion as to certain elements of a plain‐
    tiff’s claim may be shifted to defendants, when such elements
    can fairly be characterized as affirmative defenses . . . .”).
    16                                                            No. 18‐1865
    When a public employer moves for summary judgment on
    the Pickering balancing defense, therefore, it must “lay out the
    elements of the [defense], cite the facts which it believes sa‐
    tisf[y] these elements, and demonstrate why the record is so
    one‐sided as to rule out the prospect of a finding in favor of
    the non‐movant” on the defense.” See Hotel 71 Mezz Lender
    LLC v. Nat’l Retirement Fund, 
    778 F.3d 593
    , 601 (7th Cir. 2015)
    (summary judgment standard where movant bears burden of
    proof on claim or defense). The district court did not hold the
    defendants to this standard, however.
    On appeal, the defendants’ defense of the district court’s
    Pickering balance suffers from two general defects. First,
    through citations to websites and the “VISTA Member Hand‐
    book,” they seek to defend the district court’s decision based
    on facts that were not before that court. Contra, Fed. R. App.
    P. 10(a); United States v. Elizalde‐Adame, 
    262 F.3d 637
    , 640 (7th
    Cir. 2001) (“[W]e still could not consider the claims because
    they are based on factual material outside of the record which
    was never presented to the district court.”). We therefore de‐
    cline to consider these materials.2
    2In one unusual case, we reversed summary judgment in an opinion
    that discussed in detail factual materials drawn from the majority’s own
    factual research, outside the appellate record. See Rowe v. Gibson, 
    798 F.3d 622
     (7th Cir. 2015), rehearing en banc denied by equally divided court,
    
    2015 WL 10767326
     (7th Cir. 2015). The Rowe majority denied, however,
    that it based its decision on such research. 798 F.3d at 629, 630, 632; 
    2015 WL 10767326
     at *1. The plaintiff’s pro se status as a prisoner who had vir‐
    tually no access to medical expertise was critical to the majority’s unusual
    decision to carry out its own factual research. 
    Id.
     at 629–30. By contrast, in
    this opinion we have cited several government websites only for general
    background and context about the VISTA program, not for material facts.
    See supra at 4 n.1.
    No. 18‐1865                                                   17
    Second, the defendants offer justifications for Harnish‐
    feger’s termination that Kopczynski might have considered at
    the time but for which there is no actual evidence. “Pickering
    balancing is not an exercise in judicial speculation.” Gustafson,
    
    290 F.3d at 909
    . More specifically, Pickering balancing “is not
    like ‘rational basis’ review . . . , under which it is enough to
    imagine any rational underpinning” for a challenged govern‐
    ment action. 
    Id.
     at 909–10. “First Amendment rights cannot be
    trampled based on hypothetical concerns that a governmental
    employer never expressed.” 
    Id. at 910
    . A court must look in‐
    stead to what the public employer’s concerns “really were.”
    
    Id. at 909
    ; cf. Craig, 736 F.3d at 1115, 1119–21 (on motion to
    dismiss, reviewing public employer’s “list of Charges” and
    “Bill of Particulars” attached to complaint as “adequate basis”
    on which to perform Pickering balancing).
    On this record, the only evidence of the defendants’ actual
    concerns with Conversations is Kopczynski’s September 28,
    2016 letter to Kubiszewski requesting Harnishfeger’s removal
    from her Guard assignment, supported by Harnishfeger’s re‐
    port of her September 29, 2016 meeting with Kopczynski and
    Butler. Kopczynski’s letter disclosed one overriding concern:
    that Conversations and Harnishfeger’s June 2, 2016 Facebook
    post announcing its publication “substantially diminishe[d]”
    Harnishfeger’s “effectiveness as an AmeriCorps VISTA mem‐
    ber.”
    The letter suggests two reasons for that conclusion: first,
    that “activities and conduct found on Amy’s social media Fa‐
    cebook account . . . do not favorably represent our Family
    Program Office or its core programs,” and again that “[t]hese
    public displays on social media do not reflect a positive image
    for our organization”; and second, that “[t]his posting and its
    18                                                No. 18‐1865
    content do not create a culture that reduces violent behavior
    within the ranks or emphasizes and encourages help‐seeking
    behaviors” and are “in direct contrast with the Indiana Na‐
    tional Guard’s Domestic Violence Prevention and Response
    Plan.”
    Harnishfeger’s report of the September 29 meeting is con‐
    sistent with the September 28 letter, except that on September
    29 there was apparently no mention of “help‐seeking beha‐
    viors” or the Guard’s “Domestic Violence Prevention and Re‐
    sponse Plan.” According to Harnishfeger, in their meeting
    Kopczynski said that Conversations was “really horrible,” that
    Harnishfeger was not presenting the Guard “in a favorable
    light,” and that the Guard could not “have anyone find out”
    that Harnishfeger had written it.
    Kopczynski’s first reason for doubting Harnishfeger’s ef‐
    fectiveness was that Conversations reflected poorly on the
    Guard. But there is no evidence or reasonable inference that it
    had done so or would do so—certainly not to an extent that
    would risk compromising the Guard’s mission, a prospect
    Kopczynski’s letter did not even raise. “The burden of caution
    employees bear with respect to the words they speak will vary
    with the extent of authority and public accountability the em‐
    ployee’s role entails.” Rankin v. McPherson, 
    483 U.S. 378
    , 390
    (1987). Harnishfeger’s responsibilities with the Guard were so
    routine and clerical that she could not be viewed by a reason‐
    able member of the public as speaking for the Guard on any
    matter, beyond her occasional collection of telephone num‐
    bers and email addresses from veterans’ service providers.
    In this respect, Harnishfeger is much like the clerical law‐
    enforcement employee in Rankin. She was fired from that role
    (impermissibly, as the Court held) for saying, in a private
    No. 18‐1865                                                   19
    conversation with a colleague at work about a recent attempt
    on President Reagan’s life, that “if they go for him again, I
    hope they get him.” 
    483 U.S. at 381
    . Notwithstanding the gen‐
    eral proposition that approving of murder may cast doubt on
    a person’s suitability for a career in law enforcement, see 
    id. at 390
    , the Court rejected the suggestion that “every employee
    in Constable Rankin’s office, whether computer operator,
    electrician, or file clerk, is equally required, on pain of dis‐
    charge, to avoid any statement susceptible of being inter‐
    preted” as an indication of unsuitability for promoting the
    public employer’s ultimate law‐enforcement mission. 
    Id. at 391
    .
    On this point, the Court contrasted the case with McMul‐
    len v. Carson, 
    754 F.2d 936
     (11th Cir. 1985), which upheld the
    firing of a clerical employee in the Jacksonville, Florida, sher‐
    iff’s office after the employee identified himself at a televised
    press conference as a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan. Rankin,
    
    483 U.S. at
    391 n.18. In that case, “[t]he evidence [was] uncon‐
    tradicted that Jacksonville’s black community in large part
    would categorically distrust the Sheriff’s office if a known
    Klan member were permitted to stay on in any position.”
    McMullen, 
    754 F.2d at 939
    .
    Our decision in Craig offers a useful comparison on this
    point as well. Emphasizing the “inordinate amount of trust
    and authority” conferred upon Craig by his role as a high
    school guidance counselor, 736 F.3d at 1119, we could “easily
    see how female students may feel uncomfortable seeking ad‐
    vice from Craig given his professed inability to refrain from
    sexualizing females” and indeed might have forgone “the
    school’s counseling services entirely rather than take the risk
    that Craig would not view them as a person but instead as an
    20                                                  No. 18‐1865
    object.” Id. at 1120. The school’s interest in “ensur[ing] effec‐
    tive delivery of counseling services to female students” was
    squarely implicated, and immediately endangered, by Craig’s
    speech. Id.
    As in Rankin, and unlike McMullen and Craig, there is in
    Harnishfeger’s case no evidence and no basis for believing
    that veterans or organizations serving them would distrust
    the Guard if the known author of a phone‐sex memoir were
    permitted to collect and enter the organizations’ contact infor‐
    mation into a database on the Guard’s behalf. That is all the
    more true of Conversations specifically, which disapproves
    sexual abuse of children in the strongest terms, describing
    those who fantasize about it as “monsters” who “need to end
    things once and for all.” It “borders on the fanciful,” see Ran‐
    kin, 
    483 U.S. at 393
     (Powell, J., concurring), to suggest, as de‐
    fendants do here, that any member of the public could believe
    the Guard condoned sexual abuse of children because its
    VISTA volunteer authored Conversations.
    It is in fact highly unlikely that Conversations could have
    reflected anything at all about the Guard, positive or negative.
    Only a single “private” Facebook post linked Conversations to
    Harnishfeger, and, as far as the record discloses with cer‐
    tainty, only two “public” Facebook posts linked Harnishfeger
    to the Guard. Harnishfeger’s authorship of Conversations was
    uncovered only because Butler, the Guard’s own employee,
    out of boredom or curiosity on her lunch break, went digging
    through “dozens, if not hundreds” of Harnishfeger’s Face‐
    book posts. She was able to do so only because—we must as‐
    sume—Harnishfeger felt compelled to accept her supervisor’s
    “friend” request. The reasonable inference in Harnishfeger’s
    favor is that she would not have accepted “friend” requests
    No. 18‐1865                                                 21
    from any Guard employee who was not her supervisor, nor
    from anyone connected to the two service providers she con‐
    tacted on Facebook on the Guard’s behalf.
    The district court weighed in defendants’ favor the possi‐
    bility that Butler, not Harnishfeger, would disrupt the Guard’s
    mission by spreading knowledge of Conversations. We must
    disagree. Aside from the lack of evidence on this point, the
    government cannot be handed a “snooper’s veto” when it un‐
    covers otherwise secreted employee speech and then invokes
    the possibility that its own agents would publicize it. Cf.
    Craig, 736 F.3d at 1121 (recognizing that “heckler’s veto” can‐
    not be used to silence unpopular speech).
    Kopczynski’s second reason for doubting Harnishfeger’s
    effectiveness was that her “posting and its content do not cre‐
    ate a culture that reduces violent behavior within the ranks or
    emphasizes and encourages help‐seeking behaviors” and are
    “in direct contrast with the Indiana National Guard’s Domes‐
    tic Violence Prevention and Response Plan.” The district court
    did not address this ground, and the defendants do not at‐
    tempt to defend it on appeal. Conversations neither promotes
    violence nor discourages victims of violence from seeking
    help.
    In sum, the defendants’ side of the Pickering balance is
    empty. The connection between the stated grounds for
    Harnishfeger’s termination and the evidence before us is so
    tenuous as to support a reasonable inference that the former
    were mere pretexts for the feelings of embarrassment and dis‐
    gust that Conversations undoubtedly—and intentionally,
    Harnishfeger points out—arouses in its readers. But a public
    employer may not “use authority over employees to silence
    discourse, not because it hampers public functions but simply
    22                                                  No. 18‐1865
    because superiors disagree with the content of employees’
    speech.” Rankin, 
    483 U.S. at 384
    . The First Amendment pro‐
    hibits such misuse of authority.
    2. Action Under Color of State Law
    Section 1983 offers a remedy for constitutional violations
    by persons acting under color of state law, not federal law.
    Knutson v. Wis. Air Nat’l Guard, 
    995 F.2d 765
    , 767 (7th Cir.
    1993). Kopczynski contends that she acted here under federal
    law, not state. The district court did not address the issue, but
    the record is sufficient for us to address it as an alternative
    ground argued for affirming summary judgment.
    “No set formula exists” for determining whether a partic‐
    ular governmental action is taken under color of state or fed‐
    eral law; our inquiry “focuses on the nature of that action and
    functional capacity of the actor.” Knutson, 
    995 F.2d at 767
    , cit‐
    ing Lake Country Estates, Inc. v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency,
    
    440 U.S. 391
    , 399–400 (1979). The question arises with respect
    to the National Guard because, as the Supreme Court has ex‐
    plained, its members occupy a unique position in our federal
    structure:
    [In 1933, Congress] created the two overlapping
    but distinct organizations . . . —the National
    Guard of the various States and the National
    Guard of the United States. Since 1933 all per‐
    sons who have enlisted in a State National
    Guard unit have simultaneously enlisted in the
    National Guard of the United States. In the lat‐
    ter capacity they became a part of the Enlisted
    Reserve Corps of the Army, but unless and until
    ordered to active duty in the Army, they
    No. 18‐1865                                                     23
    retained their status as members of a separate
    State Guard unit.
    Perpich v. U.S. Dep’t of Defense, 
    496 U.S. 334
    , 345 (1990) (inter‐
    nal quotation marks omitted). Unless and until called into fed‐
    eral service, therefore, “[i]n each state the National Guard is a
    state agency, under state authority and control.” Knutson,
    
    995 F.2d at 767
    .
    In Knutson we considered whether, in light of its “hybrid
    nature,” the Wisconsin Air National Guard acted under color
    of state law for purposes of § 1983 in firing plaintiff Knutson.
    Id. Despite the web of state and federal laws and regulations
    governing National Guard service, at bottom Knutson’s case
    “present[ed] the rather straightforward case of state officers
    exercising their state authority to effectuate the termination of
    state militia personnel.” Id. at 768. There was no contention
    that Knutson’s unit had been federalized at any relevant time,
    and the governor of Wisconsin otherwise served as the
    Guard’s commander in chief. Id. Though federal law author‐
    ized the Guard’s activity, governed much of its conduct, and
    subsidized the salaries of its officers and technicians, id. at 767,
    that did “not alter the state‐law character of its actions.” Id. at
    768.
    Similarly here, the Indiana Army National Guard was not
    federalized at any time relevant to this case. The governor of
    Indiana is the commander in chief of Indiana’s National
    Guard units. 
    Ind. Code § 10
    ‐16‐6‐4(a). Kopczynski’s Septem‐
    ber 28, 2016 letter to Kubiszewski was on letterhead bearing
    Indiana’s state seal and the emblem of the “Indiana Joint
    Forces Headquarters.” All signs point to state action, not fed‐
    eral.
    24                                                 No. 18‐1865
    The defendants argue that Knutson does not control here,
    not because the Indiana Army National Guard is materially
    different from the Wisconsin Air National Guard, but because
    Harnishfeger was a member of a federal program when
    Kopczynski demanded her removal. The proper focus, how‐
    ever, is not on the target of the action but on the actor. Knut‐
    son, 
    995 F.2d at 767
    . The defense argument implies that any
    public or private VISTA sponsor (the Indianapolis Public
    Schools or a local Boys and Girls Club, for example) becomes
    a federal agent whenever it hosts a VISTA volunteer, a view
    we find untenable.
    The defense points out that Harnishfeger’s VISTA position
    was federally funded and subject in part to federal guidelines.
    But both factors were present in Knutson as well, see 
    id. at 767
    (“the federal government provides salaries, benefits, and sup‐
    plies to full‐time Guard officers and technicians”), 768 (“Wis‐
    consin adopts and [defendant] opts to utilize federal substan‐
    tive and procedural rules”), and that did not “alter the state‐
    law character” of the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s actions.
    
    Id. at 768
    .
    In demanding Harnishfeger’s removal from her VISTA
    placement, Lieutenant Colonel Kopczynski was a Guard of‐
    ficer exercising her supervisory authority over the Guard’s
    Family Program Office for the Guard’s benefit and in further‐
    ance of the Guard’s mission. That was action under color of
    state law, so § 1983 offers a remedy.
    3. Qualified Immunity
    Defendants also sought summary judgment on the de‐
    fense of qualified immunity, arguing that Kopczynski did not
    violate clearly established constitutional law by demanding
    No. 18‐1865                                                   25
    Harnishfeger’s removal. See generally, e.g., Surita v. Hyde,
    
    665 F.3d 860
    , 868 (7th Cir. 2011), citing Pearson v. Callahan,
    
    555 U.S. 223
    , 231 (2009). It is “an undeniable fact about balanc‐
    ing tests,” such as Pickering’s, “that they produce a wide gray
    area between the clearly legal and the clearly illegal, and the
    rules of qualified immunity require giving the benefit of the
    doubt to the reasonable public official if the particular case
    falls within that gray area.” Gustafson v. Jones, 
    117 F.3d 1015
    ,
    1021 (7th Cir. 1997). “[G]overnment officials are not expected
    to be prescient and are not liable for damages simply because
    they legitimately but mistakenly believed that the balancing
    of interests tipped in the State’s favor.” Gregorich v. Lund,
    
    54 F.3d 410
    , 415 (7th Cir. 1995).
    No prescience is demanded, however, of the public em‐
    ployer who retaliates against protected speech “where the
    speech caused no actual disruption of any kind for four
    months, and where the employer neither articulates a belief
    that the speech has the potential to be disruptive in the future,
    nor has evidence to support the reasonableness of such a be‐
    lief.” Gustafson v. Jones, 
    290 F.3d 895
    , 913 (7th Cir. 2002) (re‐
    jecting defense of qualified immunity on appeal from verdict
    for plaintiffs). Substitute “three months” for “four months,”
    and the observation applies here.
    First, under clearly established law in September 2016,
    Conversations was protected. It was speech neither at work nor
    about work; it was addressed to a general audience; and there
    was no sign that Harnishfeger deliberately linked its content
    or message to the Guard’s mission, purpose, or image. City of
    San Diego v. Roe, 
    543 U.S. 77
    , 80–82 (2004); NTEU, 
    513 U.S. 454
    ,
    466 (1995); Eberhardt v. O’Malley, 
    17 F.3d 1023
    , 1026–27 (7th
    Cir. 1994). Though we must take care not to define the right
    26                                                    No. 18‐1865
    asserted by Harnishfeger at too high a level of generality, see
    Viilo v. Eyre, 
    547 F.3d 707
    , 710 (7th Cir. 2008), citing Brosseau v.
    Haugen, 
    543 U.S. 194
    , 198–99 (2004), there is no real dispute on
    these points here.
    Defendants argue that Roe and Craig v. Rich Township High
    School District 227, 
    736 F.3d 1110
     (7th Cir. 2013), together sug‐
    gest that sexually explicit speech “is generally not considered
    of public concern,” but those cases suggest no such thing. Roe
    made clear that the plaintiff’s sexualized performances would
    have been protected under NTEU but for his deliberate link‐
    age of them to his police work. See 543 U.S. at 81 (“Although
    Roe’s activities took place outside the workplace . . . .”). And
    Craig lost at the Pickering balancing step of the analysis, not
    the threshold step of whether his speech addressed a matter
    of public concern under Connick. See Craig, 736 F.3d at 1113,
    1115–18.
    Second, clearly established law in September 2016 held
    that the public employer’s side of the Pickering balance must
    be supported with evidence of actual disruption, or at least
    the articulation of a reasonable belief in future disruption plus
    evidence of its reasonableness at the time. Gustafson, 
    290 F.3d at 913
    ; see also Hulbert v. Wilhelm, 
    120 F.3d 648
    , 655 (7th Cir.
    1997) (denying qualified immunity: “Connick reiterated Pick‐
    ering’s rule that the mere incantation of the phrase ‘internal
    harmony in the workplace’ is not enough to carry the day, and
    the Pierce County defendants appeared to have relied on
    nothing more substantial than that.”); Dahm v. Flynn, 
    60 F.3d 253
    , 258 (7th Cir. 1994) (reversing in part grant of qualified
    immunity defense: “Not only did Flynn fail to identify how
    Dahm’s testimony impeded the efficient operations of the
    No. 18‐1865                                                  27
    Lottery, but the precise opposite would seem to have moti‐
    vated the Wisconsin legislature to invite Dahm to testify[.]”).
    The Pickering analysis here shows no actual disruption; no
    articulation of a belief in future disruption with respect to
    Kopczynski’s appeal that Conversations does not “favorably
    represent” the Guard; and no rational connection between
    Kopczynski’s appeal to the Guard’s Domestic Violence Pre‐
    vention and Response Plan and Conversations or Harnish‐
    feger’s VISTA placement. On this record, the explanations
    provided appear to be so flimsy as to support an inference
    that they were not objectively reasonable but reflected only
    disgust with Conversations and its author, whom the Guard,
    as Kopczynski emphasized, “likely would not have consid‐
    ered” for VISTA placement had it been aware of her “previous
    employment/work experience.” On this record, “the line be‐
    tween the permitted and the forbidden” was clearly “marked
    in advance.” Walsh v. Ward, 
    991 F.2d 1344
    , 1346 (7th Cir. 1993).
    Kopczynski has not shown that she stayed within that line
    and is entitled to summary judgment based on qualified im‐
    munity.
    B. Claims Against the Federal Defendants
    As for Harnishfeger’s claims against Kubiszewski, Lopez,
    and the United States, we conclude she failed to show a triable
    issue on any federal defendant’s personal participation in a
    constitutional violation and otherwise failed to show a triable
    issue on her APA claim. We therefore affirm the judgment in
    the federal defendants’ favor.
    1. First Amendment Claim
    Causation, the third element of a public employee’s First
    Amendment retaliation claim, is uncontested by the parties
    28                                                    No. 18‐1865
    on appeal, though it was disputed in the district court. The
    district court did not decide the issue, but we may affirm a
    grant of summary judgment on any basis in the record, “so
    long as that ground was adequately addressed in the district
    court and the nonmoving party had an opportunity to contest
    the issue.” Peretz v. Sims, 
    662 F.3d 478
    , 480 (7th Cir. 2011),
    quoting Cardoso v. Robert Bosch Corp., 
    427 F.3d 429
    , 432 (7th
    Cir. 2005). Here, Harnishfeger had and took the opportunity
    to contest the issue in the district court (indeed, she cross‐
    moved for summary judgment on liability) and the lack of
    causation here is so clear‐cut that we see no need to remand
    the issue for the district court to consider in the first instance.
    “[T]o make out a prima facie case for retaliation at sum‐
    mary judgment,” a public employee must bring forward evi‐
    dence sufficient to permit a reasonable finding that her pro‐
    tected speech “was at least a motivating factor” of the public
    employer’s speech‐deterring deprivation. Kidwell v. Eisen‐
    hauer, 
    679 F.3d 957
    , 965 (7th Cir. 2012). “Causation is a subject
    on which philosophers speak more clearly than lawyers.”
    Greene v. Doruff, 
    660 F.3d 975
    , 978 (7th Cir. 2011). What the law
    calls a “motivating factor” in this context is a sufficient condi‐
    tion: the public employee at summary judgment must show
    that a reasonable jury could find her protected speech “was a
    sufficient condition of the harm” for which she seeks redress.
    
    Id. at 979
    .
    If that showing is made, “the burden shifts to the employer
    to rebut the causal inference raised by [the employee’s] evi‐
    dence,” Kidwell, 
    679 F.3d at 965
    , by showing that her protected
    speech “though a sufficient condition was not a necessary
    condition” of the employer’s adverse action; “the harm
    . . . would have occurred anyway.” Greene, 
    660 F.3d at 979
    . If
    No. 18‐1865                                                   29
    the employer fails, “the inference is that ‘but for’ causation
    (that is, a necessary condition) has been shown,” and the em‐
    ployee prevails. 
    Id.
    Harnishfeger failed to carry her initial burden of offering
    evidence of causation as to the federal employees, Ku‐
    biszewski and Lopez. Kubiszewski was a State Program Of‐
    ficer for CNCS and Harnishfeger’s point of contact with the
    VISTA program. A week or so after Lopez’s September 29,
    2016 letter to Harnishfeger informing her CNCS had placed
    her on administrative leave, Kubiszewski informed Harnish‐
    feger that if she deactivated (more exactly, “took specific steps
    with respect to”) her Facebook account, she would be permit‐
    ted to seek another sponsoring organization. Harnishfeger
    then deactivated her Facebook account. On October 6, Ku‐
    biszewski sent Harnishfeger a list of approved VISTA spon‐
    sors in Indiana and told her she had nineteen days, until Oc‐
    tober 25, to find a new sponsor.
    Lopez was the Indiana State Program Director for CNCS.
    On September 29, 2016 Lopez told Harnishfeger by letter that
    she had been removed from her VISTA placement and put on
    “Administrative Hold status for a period not to exceed 30
    days,” effective immediately. When Harnishfeger failed to se‐
    cure a reassignment with another sponsoring organization by
    October 25, Lopez informed her by a second letter that her
    VISTA membership had been finally terminated “for lack of
    suitable assignment.”
    A governmental actor may be held personally liable only
    for constitutional violations in which she personally partici‐
    pated. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 
    556 U.S. 662
    , 676–77 (2009) (Bivens);
    Gentry v. Duckworth, 
    65 F.3d 555
    , 561 (7th Cir. 1995) (§ 1983).
    On the facts recited above, it is clear beyond genuine dispute
    30                                                  No. 18‐1865
    that neither Kubiszewski nor Lopez (with one exception)
    played any role in Harnishfeger’s removal from her VISTA
    placement with the Guard.
    The exception for Lopez arises from the regulations gov‐
    erning VISTA participation. Those regulations provide in rel‐
    evant part that “CNCS has the sole authority to remove a
    VISTA from a project where . . . she has been assigned.”
    
    45 C.F.R. § 2556.405
    (a). However, a sponsoring organization
    “may request that CNCS remove a VISTA assigned to its pro‐
    ject.” § 2556.410(a). When such a request is made, “[t]he State
    Program Director may, at his . . . discretion, attempt to resolve
    the situation with the sponsor so that an alternative solution
    other than removal of the VISTA from the project assignment
    is reached.” § 2556.410(b) (emphasis added). Otherwise, if an
    alternative solution “is not sought, or is not reached within a
    reasonable time period, the State Program Director shall re‐
    move the VISTA from the project.” § 2556.410(c) (emphasis
    added).
    As long as the Guard dug in its heels, as it did, it had the
    power to insist that Harnishfeger’s term with it was over. Still,
    assuming without deciding that Lopez’s failure to exercise his
    discretion to try to persuade the Guard to change its mind
    might have been actionable, Harnishfeger has failed to show
    that a jury could reasonably conclude Conversations explains
    Lopez’s failure. There is no evidence that Lopez knew, even
    in a general way, what the content of Conversations was. Nei‐
    ther is there any evidence of Lopez’s reaction to Conversations
    specifically or to any speech, offensive or not, by VISTA mem‐
    bers generally. On this record, there is simply no indication
    that the content of Conversations influenced Lopez’s decision
    No. 18‐1865                                                  31
    not to exercise his discretion to try to persuade the Guard to
    allow Harnishfeger to stay.
    As for Harnishfeger’s removal by CNCS from the VISTA
    program entirely, the constitutional violation at issue is her
    removal from her VISTA placement with the Guard. The Pick‐
    ering balance makes no allowance here for the interests of
    CNCS regarding termination once the Guard ended Harnish‐
    feger’s VISTA term with it. In any event, as with Lopez’s in‐
    volvement in Harnishfeger’s removal from her placement
    with the Guard, there is no non‐speculative inference that
    Conversations explains Kubiszewski and Lopez’s actions in re‐
    moving Harnishfeger from the VISTA program. Again, there
    is no evidence Lopez had any material understanding of Con‐
    versations to begin with. More fundamentally, if one imagines
    Conversations being brought to the attention of Kubiszewski
    and Lopez directly, without mediation by Kopczynski’s re‐
    moval request, the record contains no reason to believe that
    either federal officer’s reaction would have been adverse to its
    author—still less, adverse to such a degree that either would
    have been moved to seek Harnishfeger’s removal from
    VISTA. Kubiszewski and Lopez are entitled to judgment as a
    matter of law.
    2. The APA Claim
    Under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, the tar‐
    get of an adverse final agency action may seek to have the ac‐
    tion held unlawful and set aside by a reviewing court if it is
    “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not
    in accordance with law,” or “contrary to constitutional right,
    power, privilege, or immunity.” 
    5 U.S.C. § 706
    (2)(A)–(B). The
    district court entered judgment in the defendants’ favor on
    the APA claim because it concluded that no defendant had
    32                                                    No. 18‐1865
    violated Harnishfeger’s constitutional rights and CNCS’s de‐
    cision to terminate Harnishfeger’s VISTA participation for
    lack of suitable assignment was not arbitrary or unreasonable.
    We agree that no federal defendant—Kubiszewski, Lopez,
    or the United States, which acted through them in this case—
    violated the Constitution. We have already explained why the
    record does not permit a reasonable inference that Ku‐
    biszewski or Lopez abridged Harnishfeger’s free‐speech
    rights: they did not personally participate in Lieutenant Colo‐
    nel Kopczynski’s decision to demand Harnishfeger’s removal
    from her placement with the Guard; and Harnishfeger has not
    shown evidence that Conversations suffices to explain their de‐
    cision to remove her from the VISTA program entirely.
    For non‐constitutional review of agency action, “we rely
    on the same administrative record that was before the district
    court and render an independent judgment as to whether the
    agency acted unreasonably.” Mittelstadt v. Perdue, 
    913 F.3d 626
    , 633 (7th Cir. 2019), quoting Stable Invs. P’ship v. Vilsack,
    
    775 F.3d 910
    , 915 (7th Cir. 2015). Our review is “deferential.”
    
    Id.,
     quoting St. Clair v. Sec’y of Navy, 
    155 F.3d 848
    , 851 (7th Cir.
    1998). Harnishfeger does not deny that she failed to secure re‐
    assignment after her removal from the Guard and that this
    failure motivated her “non‐cause” termination from the
    VISTA program. She complains, however, of “numerous
    uniquely onerous conditions” on which her continued VISTA
    service was made to depend: the unsuitability or undesirabil‐
    ity of the proffered alternative placements; the “cold calling”
    process to which she was relegated; and the requirement that
    any future sponsor speak with her Guard supervisors.
    Undoubtedly, CNCS’s course of proceeding put Harnish‐
    feger in a less than ideal position to continue her VISTA
    No. 18‐1865                                                 33
    service. But non‐ideal is not irrational. Harnishfeger’s charge
    that the conditions of her continued participation were
    “uniquely onerous” is not supported by the record. True, the
    “cold calling” procedure differed from the initial sponsor‐as‐
    signment process, but there is no evidence as to how CNCS
    usually proceeded in sponsor‐reassignment cases. Without
    such evidence, we cannot say that it was arbitrary for CNCS
    to have failed to offer Harnishfeger more interesting or more
    convenient reassignment options, or to have permitted any
    prospective new sponsor to speak with Harnishfeger’s former
    sponsor. Harnishfeger failed to show a genuine dispute as to
    her entitlement to relief under the APA. The federal defen‐
    dants are therefore entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
    The judgment in favor of all defendants but Kopczynski is
    AFFIRMED. The judgment in favor of Kopczynski is
    REVERSED and the case REMANDED for further procee‐
    dings consistent with this opinion.