Public Employees Gaining More First Amendment Protections

Recently, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that public employees can sue, claiming that their civil rights were violated, if and only if their employers thought that a constitutional right was in play. Many people have been saved by this court decision including one man named Jeffrey Heffernan. Jeffrey Heffernan was a police officer in Paterson, New Jersey when the local mayor was running for re-elecion. During the re-election, city officials believed that Heffernan was campaigning for a candidate who was running against the mayor which caused for a demotion. The officials believed that Heffernan went to the campaign headquarters of the mayor's opponent to display a campaign sign but in reality, Heffernan explained that he went to get a sign for his bedridden mother, not to campaign for the mayor's opponent.

Heffernan believed that the city officials had no right to do this so he decided to take his case to the local courts. The local courts argued with him and said that he had no protected speech being in the position that he was in. Heffernan knew that the local courts were wrong in telling him that he had no protected speech so he decided to take his case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ended up overturning the rulings of the city and local courts. One Justice in particular who spoke out for the rights of Heffernan free speech was Justice Stephen Breyer. Justice Breyer said that "to any employer who punishes an employee because the employer believes the employee has engaged in conduct that the First Amendment protects-even if the employer is factually mistaken about the conduct."

This Supreme Court Case has helped guarantee public employees more civil rights and has provided them with the opportunity to speak out against their employer if need be. Others believe that the Supreme Court made the wrong decision because the law does not protect someone whose constitutional rights have not been violated. Opponents of this court case say that because Heffernan conceded that he was not exercising his First Amendment rights, he had no basis for his claim. Even though these opponents fought that against this Court case, Heffernan ended up winning the Supreme Court Case.