In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined an invitation to overturn Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, its seminal 1990 case holding that a facially neutral and generally applicable law survives a challenge under the Free Exercise Clause if it is rationally related to a legitimate government interest. However, the
"protected free speech"
A Defining Case on Union-Related Free Speech
By David Urban on
Posted in First Amendment, Public Safety Issues
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has just issued a decision that expansively describes public employee protected free speech in the context of labor-management relations. On March 22, 2013, in Ellins v. Sierra Madre, the Ninth Circuit determined that a city police officer who served as union president could state a…