What is the current state of the law on the role of motive in constitutional analysis?

We have no difficulty concluding that the law as of 1984 failed to clearly establish the role of motive in constitutional analysis. The issue had surfaced primarily in this circuit, but the cases which discussed motive in some depth did so only in the context of reviewing a grant of summary judgment or a denial of a preliminary injunction. In Ebel v. City of Corona, 698 F.2d 390, 393 (9th Cir.1983), we determined that there existed sufficient evidence of an improper motive on behalf of a city that enacted an adult ordinance, to present "fair ground for litigation." And in Tovar v. Billmeyer, 721 F.2d 1260, 1265 (9th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 872, 105 S.Ct. 223, 83 L.Ed.2d 152 (1984), we found that a genuine issue of material fact existed as to whether zoning decisions affecting adult businesses were improperly motivated. See also Kuzinich v. County of Santa Clara, 689 F.2d 1345, 1348 (9th Cir.1983) (as amended). In neither case were we in the position to set forth definitively the role that motivation would play in determining whether zoning ordinances were unconstitutional.