Opinion ID: 659889
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pickering Analysis

Text: 24 In cases where a public employee has suffered adverse employment action in retaliation for exercising the right to free speech, the Supreme Court has evaluated the constitutionality of the action by applying a balancing test first enunciated in Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968). 3 The Pickering test requires balancing the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees. 4 Pickering, 391 U.S. at 568, 88 S.Ct. at 1734-35. The Supreme Court has described such balancing as necessary to accommodate the dual role of the public employer as a provider of public services and as a government entity operating under the constraints of the First Amendment. Rankin, 483 U.S. at 384, 107 S.Ct. at 2897. According to this theory, allowing unchecked public employee expression would be inappropriate because some expression might hinder the performance of public functions, but giving public employers free rein to silence discourse would also be unacceptable for it would allow employers to censor employee speech because they disagree with its content rather than because it disrupts workplace functioning. Id. 5 25