A New Jersey elementary school teacher may lose her job for calling her students “future criminals.” An administrative law judge said she should be fired. The teacher intended that her comments be seen only by her Facebook friends. -db From a commentary in Mobiledia, November 11, 2011, by Janet Maragioglio. Full story
The Obama administration suspended Foreign Services Officer Peter Van Buren for his book critical of the State Department operations in Iraq. Van Buren also installed a link to WikiLeaks on his blog. “No one was particularly concerned about what we were doing, how much money we were spending, and the results of our endeavors,” Van Buren said of his experiences in Iraq in a speech to the National Press Club last week. From The Talk
When a Los Angeles police detective posted a photo of a murder victim on Twitter, questions arose about the propriety of the post and the policeman’s free speech rights. Even though the Los Angeles Police Department does not have a policy on the use of social media, they asked the detective to forego posting details about his investigations. -db From a commentary for Suffolk Media Law, October 22, 2011, by Brian Lynch. Full story
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals invoked the Supreme Court decision Garcetti v. Caballos in ruling that a math teacher does not have a First Amendment right to display banners with such messages as “In God We Trust” in his classroom. Garcetti established that public employees have no right to free speech when speaking as employees rather than citizens. Writing for the First Amendment Center, David L. Hudson Jr. says while there are reasons
A former probationary officer, Jason M. Jackler, fired for refusing to recant his complaint of an excessive force complaint against a police officer, was vindicated in federal court, bringing some sanity to the Garcetti v. Caballos Supreme Court decision. Garcetti established a rule stripping public employees of their free speech rights if they are speaking in the course of their official duties. In the case of the probationary officer, the appeals court found the employees