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Cheek v. City of Edwardsville
| Close Date: |
10/05/2009 |
| Topic(s): |
Worker's Rights
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| Status: |
open |
| Citation: |
2008 WL 4150029 |
| Date Of Involvement: |
05/05/2009 |
| Docket: |
08-1295 |
| Description: |
First Amendment: Employee Speech
Petitioners Cheek and Doty served as majors—second in command—in the 15-person Edwardsville, Kansas police department. The Kansas Attorney General’s office launched an investigation of corruption among Edwardsville officials and interviewed the two as witnesses. The City Council fired Cheek early in the probe and fired Doty after the Attorney General criminally charged the police chief and a council-member. The lower courts held that the speech of Cheek and Doty as witnesses lacked constitutional protection under Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006). The questions presented are:
- Whether a public employee’s statements made as a witness in an outside investigation enjoy First Amendment protection.
- Whether a comprehensive standard for determining a public employee’s job duties typically would afford constitutional protection to statements the employee makes to external agencies, an issue expressly reserved in Garcetti.
- Whether the court of appeals disregarded its obligation under Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of the United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 504–05 (1984), when it affirmed summary judgment against Cheek and Doty by substituting and then rejecting an inferior First Amendment argument for the one they actually presented.
Michael Kirkpatrick of Public Citizen is assisting the petitioners, and the petition is pending.
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