Monday, December 09, 2019
#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: December 9, 2019
As the Citadel of Free Speech here in Cleveland, we work to protect and promote the basis of our democracy by sharing related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century. Here's what's making the news – and what you should know about – in the past week.
1.) High Court Rejects Public Employee Free Speech Question
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the scope of a public employee’s right to freedom of speech, rejecting a petition to consider a case in which a county worker in Colorado was fired because he testified at a custody hearing for a family member.
The justices on Dec. 6 won’t reconsider a ruling against Jerud Butler from a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The en banc court determined that truthful testimony at a custody hearing didn’t fall under First Amendment protections because it wasn’t a “matter of public concern.”
Jerud Butler works as a supervisor for the San Miguel County (Colorado) Road and Bridge Department. He suffered a demotion after he testified in a court proceeding involving his sister-in-law and her ex-husband, who also works for the San Miguel County Road and Bridge Department. Two of Butler’s work superiors investigated his court testimony and gave him a written reprimand and demotion.
Butler then sued the two county directors who demoted him, alleging he was retaliated against for his First Amendment-protected speech. A federal district court dismissed his lawsuit, reasoning that his court testimony did not address a matter of public concern — defined generally as speech that relates to any matter of political, social or other concern to the community.
2.) Sexual harassment guidelines at two Colorado colleges restrict free speech, watchdog group says
A national nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting free speech on college campuses dinged two Colorado universities over their sexual harassment policies, saying the schools’ definitions of harassment include constitutionally protected speech.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, known as FIRE, on Wednesday published its annual report rating nearly 500 colleges around the country, including 14 public and private schools in Colorado. Laura Beltz, the report’s lead author, read the institutions’ publicly available policies and graded the schools with a “red light,” “yellow light” or “green light” depending on “how much, if any, protected expression their written policies governing student conduct restrict.”
Most institutions — 63.9% — earned a yellow light, meaning their policies are written in a vague manner that could be interpreted as restrictive to free speech, Beltz said.
3.) State argues there is no First Amendment issue in Michelle Carter case
The state says justices should reject a petition by Michelle Carter to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, because there is no First Amendment issue to decide in the landmark texting-suicide case.
Lawyers for Michelle Carter, 23, who is currently in jail serving a 15-month sentence, argued that her text messages and calls were protected free speech and that she was not responsible for the suicide of Conrad Roy III.
In their response filed last month, the state Attorney General’s office says the court’s verdict in Carter’s speech is consistent with previous decisions by the nation’s highest court regarding “speech integral to criminal conduct.”
