News & Analysis as of September 22, 2024

Public Employees

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The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech or the press, preventing citizens from peacefully assembling, or interfering with citizens' ability to petition the government for redress of their grievances. The First Amendment is one of the most sacred aspects of the American legal tradition and has spawned a vast body of jurisprudence and commentary. less -

The De-Evolution of Post-Garcetti Public Employee Speech Regulation in Higher Education

Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC on 8/3/2023

In 2006, the Supreme Court’s decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos granted public employers’ broad discretion in regulating their employees’ work-related speech. Before 2006, under the so-called Pickering Connick test, employees...more

Court Rules That Inflammatory Social Media Posts by a Public Employee Are Not Protected by the First Amendment

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 6/2/2023

Vallecorsa v. Allegheny Cty., No. 2:19-CV-1495-NR, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206720, at *2 (W.D. Pa. Nov. 15, 2022). United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania holds that Allegheny County (“County”) did...more

Sixth Circuit rules officers have no first amendment right to record interviews during police misconduct investigations

Bricker Graydon LLP on 12/9/2022

Technology. It is the proverbial blessing and curse that has resulted in an increasing amount of litigation in the courts. One such lawsuit presented the issue of whether the First Amendment provides police officers and their...more

High School Football Coach’s Mid-Field, Post-Game Prayer Ruled Protected Speech

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 9/26/2022

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 597 U.S. __ (2022) (The United States Supreme Court concludes that a coach praying at mid-field following a high school football game was engaged in private religious expression...more

SCOTUS Term Includes Back-to-School Guidance on Balancing Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses

Best Best & Krieger LLP on 9/8/2022

Employers Should Reevaluate Policies on Religious Expression at Work in Light of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District and Carson v. Makin - With the commencement of school, public youth programs and 2022-23 budget cycles,...more

Clear as Mud: Navigating In-School Employee Expression in the Wake of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District

Fox Rothschild LLP on 7/15/2022

The Supreme Court ruled in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District on June 27, 2022 that a public high school violated the Constitution by restricting a football coach from engaging in “personal” but overt post-game, mid-field...more

Supreme Court Issues Opinion on Religious Expression for Public Employees

Polsinelli on 7/8/2022

The Supreme Court addressed the intersection of the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Speech clauses as they relate to a public employee’s personal religious expression when done in the public eye. In a 6-to-3...more

Supreme Court Alters First Amendment Test In Decision Allowing High School Coach to Pray After Games

Ballard Spahr LLP on 7/1/2022

Joseph Kennedy coached football at Bremerton High School, a public school in Washington State. After football games, Kennedy led prayers at the 50-yard line among players, coaches, fans, and, sometimes, politicians. The...more

Supreme Court rules in favor of football coach who prayed on field after games

Franczek P.C. on 6/29/2022

On Monday June 27, the Supreme Court issued their ruling in the case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. (We previously reported on this case.) In a 6-3 decision penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the conservative majority...more

Supreme Court Decides Kennedy v. Bremerton School District

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP on 6/28/2022

On June 27, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, No. 21-418, holding that a football coach’s quiet prayers of thanks after three football games were protected under the Free Exercise and...more

Supreme Court to decide case of football coach placed on leave for post-game prayers

Franczek P.C. on 6/9/2022

On April 25, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which we previously reported on. As you may recall, the case involves a high school football coach, Joseph Kennedy, who was...more

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case of Former Football Coach Who Prayed on the Field after School District Told Him No

Franczek P.C. on 2/8/2022

In 2019, we reported on the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District involving a football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington state who was placed on administrative leave by his public school district for praying...more

Setting the record straight on “free speech” rights in the workplace

McAfee & Taft on 1/13/2021

Freedom of Speech. Most Americans seem to agree it is the most fundamental of rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights, and many are quick to cite their First Amendment protections whenever faced with unpleasant...more

Public Employee Loses First Amendment Retaliation Claim After Publicly Posting A Racial Slur On Facebook That Caused Sufficient...

Roetzel & Andress on 10/14/2020

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Bennett v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville, recently addressed the issue of whether a public employee’s use of a racial slur when discussing politics on Facebook is sufficiently protected by...more

Sixth Circuit Considers Public Employee’s Off-the-Clock Social Media Post in First Amendment Case

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,... on 8/31/2020

On August 19, 2020, in Marquardt v. Carlton, et al., No. 19-4223, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed summary judgment for the City of Cleveland on a former employee’s claim that the city had terminated...more

Public Employee’s Social Media Post Justifies Discharge

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 8/26/2020

Carr v. PennDOT, 2020 WL 2532232 (Pa. 2020) (Pennsylvania Supreme Court sustains the termination of employment of a public employee for a social media post). Background - The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation...more

Trump's Tweets: A Warning That Public Officials' Personal Social Media Posts Might Actually Be The Government's

Nossaman LLP on 7/29/2019

A recent federal appeals court decision, Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump, concluded that action taken by the President through the use of his personal, not just official White House, Twitter account was considered...more

President Trump Can’t Block Twitter Users, U.S. Appellate Court Rules

Best Best & Krieger LLP on 7/19/2019

The court concluded its opinion with an observation that at this time in history, “wide-open, robust debate” is the best assurance of good government. The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled last week that public...more

Key Lessons for School Officials and Other Public Employees from Recent Court Decision on Trump’s Twitter Account

Franczek P.C. on 7/17/2019

As technology and social media continue to develop, so do legal questions surrounding their use by public entities and employees. On July 9, 2019, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Knight First Amendment Institute v....more

Municipality’s Retaliation against Newspaper for Unfavorable Press Leads to Civil Rights Claim

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 6/12/2019

Press and Journal, Inc. v. Borough of Middletown, Civil Action No. 1:18-CV-2064 (M.D. Pa. 2018) (Borough faces a civil rights claim for retaliation against newspaper for unfavorable press coverage). BACKGROUND - The...more

Employers Beware: Can You Legally Terminate an Employee for a Controversial Facebook Post?

Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP on 1/25/2019

In this era of social media, it has become quite common for employees to post information online about their personal lives, their political views, and information related to their jobs. Social networks have increasingly...more

Court Holds Union Membership ‘Worthy of Constitutional Protection’

McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC on 9/24/2018

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the appeals court that has jurisdiction over federal cases in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the U. S. Virgin Islands, recently held that a public employer violates the First...more

City Can’t Restrain Employee’s Critical Comments - Ninth Circuit Holds It Is OK to Speak on Matters of Public Concern as a Private...

Best Best & Krieger LLP on 9/18/2018

A city employee’s comments at a public event were not protected under the First Amendment because she spoke as a public employee, not a private citizen, a federal appeals court held in Barone v. City of Springfield. However,...more

Omarosa’s NDA Battle – Confidentiality and Context in the Workplace

Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP on 8/24/2018

The business world has much more to learn from the Omarosa Manigault White House battle than just fashionable workplace attire and a flair for the dramatic. The battle between the White House and Omarosa over the scope of her...more

PERB Emergency/Proposed Rule Allows Expedited Review of Issues Related to Supreme Court’s Decision in Janus

Harris Beach PLLC on 8/20/2018

On August 15, 2018, the New York State Register published the Public Employment Relations Board’s (PERB) notice of emergency adoption and notice of proposed rulemaking. The emergency rule went into effect on July 27, 2018,...more

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