Connick Ex Rel. Parish of Orleans v. Myers
- Decided
- April 20, 1983
- Docket
- 81-1251
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 5,562 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that one question in an employee's questionnaire constituted speech on a matter of public concern — Luz Gonzalez v. Lee County Housing Authority (1998)
- holding that the pressuring of public employees to work in political campaigns is a matter of public concern — Luz Gonzalez v. Lee County Housing Authority (1998)
- recognizing that "government offices could not function if every employment decision became a constitutional matter" — Urofsky v. Gilmore (2000)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
[*140] Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court.
In Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U. S. 563 (1968), we stated that a public employee does not relinquish First Amendment rights to comment on matters of public interest by virtue of government employment. We also recognized that the State’s interests as an employer in regulating the speech of its employees “differ significantly from those it possesses in connection with regulation of the speech of the citizenry in general.” Id., at 568. The problem, we thought, was arriving “at a balance between the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.” Ibid. We return to this problem today and consider whether the First and Fourteenth Amendments prevent the discharge of a state employee for circulating a questionnaire concerning internal office affairs.
I
Statutes cited
Cite this
Connick Ex Rel. Parish of Orleans v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138 (1983)Read the full opinion
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