An Illinois woman claimed that a police officer made offensive statements to her and gave her two tickets in retaliation for her complaint that the officer failed to act on information she gave to him about her ex-husband who she said drove their child without a car seat and did not have a driver’s license or insurance. She sued the village and the officer on the grounds that her complaint to the police department was protected by the First Amendment and that the police officer wrongly retaliated against her for exercising her free speech rights.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow ruled that the woman was a private citizen and her speech concerned her child’s safety, her speech was protected under the First Amendment and the officer should not have retaliated against her. -db
From the First Amendment Center, April 29, 2011, by Douglas E. Lee.