* Honorable Robert B. Propst, Senior U.S. Di strict Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, sitting by designation. [PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

________________________ No. 97-8268

________________________ D. C. Docket No. 1:95-2351-CC MELVIN GRIGLEY, Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus CITY OF ATLANTA; BEVERLY HARVARD, in her official capacity as Police Chief of the City of Atlanta; S.M. O’BRIEN, individually and in her official capacity as Major in the City of Atlanta Police Department; CLAIRE D’AGOSTINO, individually and in her official capacity as Psychologist employed by the City of Atlanta; LOU R. MOORE, individually and in his official capacity as Sergeant in the City of Atlanta Police Department; JIMMY MARTIN, individually and in his official capacity as Sergeant in the City of Atlanta Police Department, Defendants-Appellees.

________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

_________________________ (March 4, 1998) Before BLACK and BARKETT, Circuit Judges, and PROPST * , Senior District Judge. BLACK, Circuit Judge:1 The City of Atlanta Police Department’s O ffice of Professional Standards (OPS) conducted an investigation of the incident between Grigle y and Hayes-Dix and reco mmended that both officers be charged with violating departmental work rules. The final disciplinary authority determined that 2 Appellant Melvin Grigley (Grigley) br ought this action against the City of Atlanta and its agents pursuant to 42 U.S.C . § 1983, alleging thathe was retaliated against in violation of his First Amendment right to petition. The district court granted the Appellee’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that Grigley’s expression was not protected by the Firs t Amendment because it did not relate to a matter of public concern. We hold the “public concern” requirement applies to First Amendment right to petition claims.
I. BACKGROUND Grigley is a male police officer employe d as a Sergeant by the City of Atlanta Police Department. He is a 22-year vete ran of that departme nt. On May 31, 1993, Grigley was involved in a physi cal altercation at his home with Officer Phyllis HayesDix, a female Atlanta police officer. The fight resulted from a dispute regarding the paternity of Hayes-Dix’s son. City of Ea st Point police officers were called to the scene and issued citations for disord erly conduct to Grig ley and Hayes-Dix. Grigley alleges that although he was “repeatedly en couraged” to “drop” the charges against Hayes-Dix, he neverthele ss testified against her. Hayes-Dix was found guilty of the charges and fined, while Grigley was found not guilty. 1Grigley would not be disciplined and that Hayes-Dix would receive a 2-day suspension. 3 Grigley contends that he was subjected to retaliation for pursuing the criminal charges against Hayes-Dix. The alleged retaliation consisted of disciplinary actions taken against him in connecti on with two other incidents. In November 1993, Grigley was involved in a physical altercation at hi s home with Karen Jackson, the mother of his daughter. Although he expl ained that he had been attacked by Jackson, the City of Atlanta Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards (OPS) imposed a one-day suspension on Grigley, which was overturned on appeal. He was referred to the City’s Psychological Services Unit (PSU) for an Early Warning Evaluation. On March 1, 1994, Grigley was i nvolved in a traffic accident in which his vehicle collided with a vehicle driven by Jackson. He a sserts that his vehicle accidently hydroplaned into Jackson’s vehicle. Grig ley alleges that he was take n to the OPS offices against his will and was require d to take a drug test. He also was required to return to PSU and to attend counseli ng and domestic violence prevention classes. Grigley asserts that he was not at fault in e ither of the incidents and that the actions taken against him were in retaliation for his refusal to drop the charges against Hayes-Dix.2 In his complaint, Grigley alleged various other federal Constitutional and state law claims. The district court granted the Appellees’ motion for summary judgment on all counts. Grigley raised the following issues on appeal: (1) whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment against Grigley on his Equal Protection cl aim of gender discrimination; (2) whether the individually named defendants are entitled to qualified immunity from the federal claims; (3) whether the individually named defendants are imm une from the state law claims; and (4) whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the City of Atlanta on Grigley’s claims brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. These issu es do not warrant discussion. We affirm the district court. 4 The district court granted summary judgment against Grigley on his First Amendment claim, holding that Grigley’s testimony against Hayes-Dix could not be characterized as speech on a matter of pub lic concern. This appeal followed. 2
II. DISCUSSION Claims by public employees of retaliation in violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech are analyzed in four steps. See Bryson v. City of Waycross , 888 F.2d 1562, 1565 (11th Cir. 1989). Firs t, the court makes the threshold determination of “whether the employee’s speech may be ‘fairly characterized as constituting speech on a matter of public concern.’” Id. (quoting Rankin v. McPherson , 483 U.S. 378, 384, 107 S. Ct. 2891, 2896-97 (1987)). Second, if the court determines that the speech addresse s a matter of public concern, the court balances the employee’s First Amendment interests against “‘the interest of the state, as an employer, in promoting the efficien cy of the public services it performs through its employees.’” Id . (quoting Pickering v. Board of Educ. of Township High Sch. Dist.5 205 , 391 U.S. 563, 568, 88 S. Ct. 1731, 1734-35 (1968 )). Third, if the court finds that the employee has satisfied the first two requirements, the fact-finder determines whether the employee’s protected speech pl ayed a substantial part in the adverse employment decision. Id. Fourth, if the employee ha s prevailed on each of the previous three requirements, the state mu st prove by a preponderance of the evidence that “‘it would have reached the same decisi on . . . even in the ab sence of the protected conduct.’” Id. at 1566 (quoting Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle , 429 U.S. 274, 286, 97 S. Ct. 568, 576 (1977)). The district court dismissed Grigley’s clai m at the first step of this analysis, ruling that Grigley’s speech did not involve a matter of public con cern. Grigley does not contest the district court’s finding th at the charges and testimony against HayesDix did not involve a mater of public concern. Grigley argues instead that the district court failed to distinguish his right to petition claim from the freedom of speech claims at issue in this Circuit’s prior cas e law. Specifically, Grigley asserts that the public concern requirement is not applicable to a right to petition claim. The majority of circuits that have considered whether the public concern requirement applies to First Amendment retaliation claims based on the right to petition have determined that it does apply to such claims. Valot v. Southeast Local Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. , 107 F.3d 1220, 1226 (6th Cir. 1997), cert. denied , 118 S. Ct.3 Although we do not find the reasoning of Bongiovannito be persuasive, it is not clear that Bongiovanniwould support Grigley under these facts. Bongiovannirepudiates the public concern requirement where the government employer “forma lly adopts a mechanism for redress of those grievances for which government is allegedly accountable,” reasoning that “when one files a ‘petition’ one is addressing government and aski ng government to fix what, allegedly, government has broken or has failed in its duty to repair.” 30 F.3d at 442. Gr igley’s claim can be distinguished for two reasons: (1) Grigley did not file any sort of claim or grieva nce at all, but merely testified against a female co-worker and refused to “drop” charges against that co-worker; and (2) Grigley did not seek to redress any adverse action taken by the government employer against him. The holding in Bongiovannifocuses on the relationship between the government employer and the employee and seeks to vindicate the right of the employee to pursue the employer’s formal grievance process. The facts of the present case do not fall within that framework. 6 164 (1997); White Plains Towing Corp. v. Patterson , 991 F.2d 1049, 1059 (2d Cir. 1993); Hoffman v. Mayor, Councilmen and Citizens of Liberty , 905 F.2d 229, 233 (8th Cir. 1990); Schalk v. Gallemore , 906 F.2d 491, 498 (10th Cir. 1990); Belk v. Town of Minocqua , 858 F.2d 1258, 1261-62 (7th Cir. 1988); Day v. South Park Indep. Sch.
Dist. , 768 F.2d 696, 701 (5th Cir. 1985). Grigley asks that we adopt the minority position announced by the Third Circuit in San Filippo v. Bongiovanni , 30 F.3d 424 (3d Cir. 1994), holding that there is no pub lic concern requirement for Petition Clause claims. 3 The issue has not been addressed specifi cally by this Circuit. We have had cases factually similar to the present cas e that were brought as freedom of speech claims, but could have been framed as right to petition claims. In those cases, we did not distinguish between First Amendmen t retaliation claims based on freedom of4 See, e.g., Holbrook v. City of Alpharetta , 112 F.3d 1522, 1529-30 (11th Cir. 1997) (rejecting claim of retaliatory discrimination because disabled employee’s filing of state ante litem claim as a prerequisite to bringing a legal action against the City for discrimination did not constitute speech on a matter of public concern); Watkins v. Bowden , 105 F.3d 1344, 1352-54 (11th Cir. 1997) (rejecting claim of retaliatory termination based on employee’s complaints of harassment, explaining that “if Watkins’s complaints did not affect a matter of public concern, her First Amendment claims must fail”); Renfroe v. Kirkpatrick, 722 F.2d 714, 715 (11th Cir. 1984) (rejecting retaliatory nonrehiring claim of teacher who had filed a grievance with the Superintendent of Education, stating that “plaintiff’s grievance is protected under the First Amendment only if it related to a matter of public concern.”).

5 The employee’s speech at issue in Morgan consisted of “complaints to official bodies – the Superintendent of the ACMI, Internal Affair s, and the Office of Fair Employment Practices.” 6 F.3d at 755. This Court held that “Morgan prim arily spoke as an employee in order to improve her work environment. . . . [T ]he main thrust of her speech took the form of a private employee grievance.” Id. 7 speech and those based on the right to petition. 4 For example, Morgan v. Ford, 6 F.3d 750 (11th Cir. 1993), the case relied on by the di strict court, involved a grievance filed against a government employer and its facts therefore would have supported a right to petition claim. 5 We concluded that “[a]s an employee grie vance, Morgan’s speech was not a matter of public concern,” and “[s]ummary judgment on Morgan’s section 1983 claim was therefore appropriate.” Id. at 755. The public concern requireme nt has its origins in Connick v. Meyers , 461 U.S. 138, 103 S. Ct. 1684 (1983). Connick involved a claim by a government employee that she was terminated in retaliation for circulating a questionnaire critical of employment conditions. The Supreme Court concluded that although public employees do have some First Amendment interest in speech that does not involve a8 matter of public concern, that interest is categorically outweighed by the employer’s interest in the efficient functioning of the workplace. [I]f Myers’ questionnaire cannot be fairly characterized as constituting speech on a matter of public concern, it is unnecessary for us to scrutinize the reasons for her discharge. . . . . . . [W]hen a public employee speak s not as a citizen upon matters of public concern, but instead as an employee upon matters only of personal interest, absent the most unusual circ umstances, a federal court is not the appropriate forum in which to reviewthe wisdom of a personnel decision taken by a public agency allegedl y in reaction to the employee’s behavior. Id. at 146-47; 103 S. Ct. at 1690. The public concern requirement exists because that category of expression is at the core of the First Amendment’s pr otections: “Our holdi ng today is grounded in our long-standing recognition that the First Amendment's primary aim is the full protection of speech upon issues of public c oncern, as well as the practical realities involved in the administration of a government office.” Id. at 154; 103 S. Ct. at 1694. Thus, the employer’s interest in the e fficient functioning of the workplace is potentially overridden only where the employee’ s speech implicates the central value of the First Amendment by addressing a matter of public concern. The rationale of Connick applies to expression that takes the form of a petition as well as expression that takes the form of speech. The Petition Clause is not entitled to any greater protection th an the Free Speech Clause:9 The Petition Clause . . . was inspired by the same ideals of liberty and democracy that gave us the freedom s to speak, publish, and assemble. These First Amendment rights are inseparable, and there is no sound basis for granting greater constitutiona l protection to statements made in a petition to the President than other First Amendment expressions. McDonald v. Smith , 472 U.S. 479, 485, 105 S. Ct. 2787, 2791 (1985) (citations omitted). The distinction urged by Grig ley between retaliation claims based on freedom of speech and those based on th e right to petition was not envisioned in Connick : To presume that all matters which transpire within a government office are of public concern would mean that virtually every remark—and certainly every criticism directed at a public official—would plant the seed of a constitutional case. While as a matter of good judgment, public officials should be receptive to constructive criticism offered by their employees, the First Amendment does not require a public office to be run as a roundtable for employee comp laints over internal office affairs. Connick, 461 U.S. at 149, 103 S. Ct. at 1691. We hold that a public employee’s claims of retaliation in violation of the First Amendment right to petition is subject to the public concern requirement. Accordingly, where a public employee’s petition does not addre ss a matter of public concern, the judicial inquiry should end at the first of the four steps outlined in Bryson , and no specific balancing of interests is necessary.
AFFIRMED.