First Amendment: Employee Speech
Joseph Densmore is a City of Maywood police officer. Densmore witnessed a more senior officer severely beat a handcuffed suspect, refused to lie about the incident as the senior officer requested, and went outside of the chain of command to report it. As a result, Densmore was treated poorly by his fellow officers and falsely accused of misconduct. Densmore brought this First Amendment retaliation suit.
In Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006), the Court held that public employees' speech is not protected by the First Amendment if it was made pursuant to their official duties. The City of Maywood contends that Densmore's speech was made pursuant to his duties and therefore unprotected. The Court of Appeals found that there were disputed issues of material fact as to the scope of Densmore's job duties and denied summary judgment. Petitioners claim that there is a circuit split over whether the scope of a public employee's job duties is a question of law or a question of fact.
Adina Rosenbaum of Public Citizen is co-counsel for the respondent at the cert stage.
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