Connick v. Myers

Facts of the Case

After the district attorney transferred the ADA, against her will, to another division in the office, she distributed the morale survey. As a result, the district attorney terminated the ADA's employment for refusing to accept the new assignment. The district attorney also informed the ADA that distributing the survey was an act of insubordination. The ADA then filed suit in a federal trial court in Louisiana, claiming that the district attorney infringed on her free speech rights under the First Amendment. The trial court and the Fifth Circuit entered judgments on behalf of the former ADA, but the Supreme Court reversed in favor of the district attorney.

The Court's Ruling

In its analysis, the Supreme Court observed that Pickering v. Board of Education of Township School District 205, Will County, (1968) clearly established that public employees may speak as private citizens on matters of public concern. In Pickering, a teacher successfully challenged his dismissal for writing a letter to a local newspaper in which he voiced concerns over school policies. Even though the report contained some inaccuracies, the Court held that the teacher was speaking as a citizen on matters of public concern.

To this end, the Court acknowledged that the judiciary must balance the rights of public employees to speak on matters of public concern with the interests of public employers in maintaining the efficiency of service. In other words, the Court decided that employees may speak, provided their speech is on a matter of public concern and does not disrupt close working relationships.

As part of its rationale in the Connick case, the Supreme Court explained that judges must evaluate whether speech addresses a matter of public concern by looking at its content, form, and context. The Court noted that the issues in the questionnaire were, with one exception, not matters of public concern. As such, the Court found that when an employee's speech does not relate to matters of political, social, or other public concerns, the judiciary must afford public officials wide latitude in managing their offices. The Court noted that because the questionnaire was designed to give the disgruntled employee ammunition to further challenge her supervisors, it was not a matter of public concern. Rather, the Court viewed the questionnaire as simply an extension of the former ADA's grievance about her transfer.

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