A Democratic View of Public Employee Speech Rights

40 Pages Posted: 4 Jun 2020 Last revised: 23 Sep 2020

See all articles by R. George Wright

R. George Wright

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

Date Written: May 5, 2020

Abstract

The current law of public employee free speech rights amounts to a near-perfect storm of jurisprudential undesirability. The Supreme Court's imposition of a gate-keeping requirement that the speech have been made in one's role as citizen, and not in one's role as a government employee, has led to disturbing, and specifically, democracy-undermining results. The case law manages to combine murkiness with adverse impacts on the public accountability, openness, and transparency essential for genuine democracy. The cases commonly display ironic, paradoxical, deeply incongruous, and broadly counterintuitive reasoning and results. These outcomes indicate that the Court should revise its current approach to public employee speech so as to better protect democratic values.

Keywords: freedom of speech, public employees, democracy

JEL Classification: K00

Suggested Citation

Wright, R. George, A Democratic View of Public Employee Speech Rights (May 5, 2020). Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Research Paper No. 2020-5, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3593599 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3593599

R. George Wright (Contact Author)

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law ( email )

530 West New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
United States

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