Opinion ID: 608078
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whistleblowing Claim

Text: 25 O'Connor's alternative claim presents a closer question. Essentially, O'Connor contends that he was discharged because he disclosed Steeves' unauthorized use of the Department account; that these disclosures dealt with a matter of significant public concern; and that his First Amendment right to speak out on the subject--against the interests of Steeves, his elected superior--outweighed the Town's demonstrated interest in protecting Department operations from any resulting disruptions and inefficiencies. We agree, and since we are unable to conclude, on the present record, that O'Connor's discharge could not have resulted from his protected speech (as opposed to his unprotected speech, or his job performance as Superintendent), we must vacate the grant of summary judgment for the Town and remand to the district court for further proceedings.
26 A government employee retains the First Amendment right to speak out, as a citizen, on matters of public concern, so long as the employee's speech does not unduly impede the government's interest, as employer, in the efficient performance of the public service it delivers through its employees. Pickering v. Board of Educ., 391 U.S. 563, 568, 88 S.Ct. 1731, 1734, 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968); see also Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 107 S.Ct. 2891, 97 L.Ed.2d 315 (1987); Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983); Brasslett v. Cota, 761 F.2d 827 (1st Cir.1985). Three tests determine whether the court is presented with an actionable claim for the infringement of a public employee's First Amendment rights. 27 First, the court must determine, on the basis of the content, form, and context of a given statement, as revealed by the whole record, whether the employee was speaking as a citizen upon matters of public concern, or, alternatively, as an employee upon matters only of personal interest. Connick, 461 U.S. at 147-48, 103 S.Ct. at 1690. If an employee's speech cannot be fairly characterized as constituting speech on a matter of public concern, then its First Amendment value is low and a federal court is not the appropriate forum in which to review the wisdom of a personnel decision arising therefrom. Id. at 146-47, 103 S.Ct. at 1689-90. 28 Second, if the employee did speak out on a matter of public concern, the court must balance the strength of the employee's First Amendment interest, and any parallel public interest in the information which the employee sought to impart, against the strength of the countervailing governmental interest in promoting efficient performance of the public service the government agency or entity must provide through its employees. Pickering, 391 U.S. at 568, 88 S.Ct. at 1734; Brasslett, 761 F.2d at 839. Though often imprecise, 29 [t]his balancing is necessary in order 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. On the one hand, public employers are employers, concerned with the efficient function of their operations; review of every personnel decision made by a public employer could, in the long run, hamper the performance of public functions. On the other hand, the threat of dismissal from public employment is ... a potent means of inhibiting speech. Vigilance is necessary to ensure that public employers do not use authority over employees to silence discourse, not because it hampers public functions but simply because superiors disagree with the content of employees' speech. 30 Rankin, 483 U.S. at 384, 107 S.Ct. at 2897 (citations omitted; emphasis in original). As the Connick and Pickering determinations depend on whether the employee statements are of a character which the principles of the First Amendment ... protect, Connick, 461 U.S. at 150 n. 10, 103 S.Ct. at 1692 n. 10, these determinations are always subject to de novo review. Id.; see also Rankin, 483 U.S. at 385-86, 107 S.Ct. at 2897; Brasslett, 761 F.2d at 835; see generally Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 499, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1958, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984) (in cases raising First Amendment issues we have repeatedly held that an appellate court has an obligation to 'make an independent examination of the whole record' in order to make sure that 'the judgment does not constitute a forbidden intrusion on the field of free speech' ) (citations omitted). 31 Third, and finally, if the court determines that the public employee's First Amendment interests in speaking out outweigh a legitimate governmental interest in curbing the employee speech, the plaintiff-employee must show that the protected expression was a substantial or motivating factor in the adverse employment decision; and, if the plaintiff meets this test, the defendant governmental entity must be afforded an opportunity to show by a preponderance of the evidence that [it] would have reached the same decision ... even in the absence of the protected conduct. Mt. Healthy, 429 U.S. at 287, 97 S.Ct. at 576; see also Duffy v. Sarault, 892 F.2d 139 (1st Cir.1989). This third test implicates questions of fact; clear error review is appropriate where judgment was entered after a trial on the merits, see Duffy, 892 F.2d at 144-45, whereas plenary review applies at the summary judgment stage. See Mesnick, 950 F.2d at 822. 32
33 The courts of appeals have adopted various approaches for determining whether a topic of employee speech is of public concern, under the threshold inquiry required by Connick, 461 U.S. at 146, 103 S.Ct. at 1689. See, e.g., D. Gordon Smith, Note, Beyond Public Concern: New Free Speech Standards for Public Employees, 57 U.Chi.L.Rev. 249, 258-61 (1990) (surveying case law). Some courts have adopted a content-based analysis, focusing exclusively on  'which information is needed or appropriate to enable the members of society' to make informed decisions about the operation of their government, McKinley v. City of Eloy, 705 F.2d 1110, 1113-14 (9th Cir.1983) (quoting Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 102, 60 S.Ct. 736, 744, 84 L.Ed. 1093 (1940)), in effect providing per se protection to public-employee speech on certain topics of inherent public interest, such as official malfeasance or abuse of office. See Koch v. City of Hutchinson, 847 F.2d 1436, 1446 n. 17 (10th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 909, 109 S.Ct. 262, 102 L.Ed.2d 250 (1988). Other courts have adopted an analysis which turns either entirely or in part on the employee's subjective intent, i.e., on whether the employee's speech was calculated to disclose misconduct or to inspire public debate on some issue of significant public interest. Conaway v. Smith, 853 F.2d 789, 796 (10th Cir.1988) (emphasis in original); see also Callaway v. Hafeman, 832 F.2d 414, 417 (7th Cir.1987) (while the content of [plaintiff's] communications touched upon an issue of public concern generally.... such speech stands unprotected from employer scrutiny when uttered in the pursuit of purely private interests); Terrell v. University of Texas System Police, 792 F.2d 1360, 1362 (5th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1064, 107 S.Ct. 948, 93 L.Ed.2d 997 (1987) (the mere fact that the topic of the employee's speech was one in which the public might or would have had a great interest is of little moment); Linhart v. Glatfelter, 771 F.2d 1004, 1010 (7th Cir.1985) (Connick requires us to look at the point of the speech in question: was it the employee's point to bring wrongdoing to light? Or to raise other issues of public concern, because they are of public concern? Or was the point to further some purely private interest?). 4 34 As our own case law implicitly recognizes, the circumstances of a particular case may govern the appropriate approach under Connick. Where a public employee speaks out on a topic which is clearly a legitimate matter of inherent concern to the electorate, the court may eschew further inquiry into the employee's motives as revealed by the form and context of the expression. See, e.g., Brasslett, 761 F.2d at 844 n. 14 (according no apparent consideration to public employee's personal motive, where fire chief's public commentary on available fire protection, and on Town Council's actions in dealing with associated problems, plainly qualified as matters of inherent public concern). On the other hand, public-employee speech on a topic which would not necessarily qualify, on the basis of its content alone, as a matter of inherent public concern (e.g., internal working conditions, affecting only the speaker and co-workers), may require a more complete Connick analysis into the form and context of the public-employee expression, as revealed by the whole record, Connick, 461 U.S. at 148, 103 S.Ct. at 1690, with a view to whether the community has in fact manifested a legitimate concern in the internal workings of the particular agency or department of government, and, if so, whether the form of the employee's expression suggests a subjective intent to contribute to any such public discourse. See, e.g., Alinovi v. Worcester School Committee, 777 F.2d 776, 787 (1st Cir.1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 816, 107 S.Ct. 72, 93 L.Ed.2d 29 (1986) (letters of reprimand issued to teacher by school administration did not implicate an issue of public concern under Connick, despite tangential connection to an incident implicating the teacher's Fourth Amendment rights; when [the teacher] posted the letters ... she was not concerned with any possible violation of her Fourth Amendment rights, but rather, with [a] purely personal issue concerning the lack of action on the part of the administration regarding her disciplinary problem) (emphasis added). Since almost anything that occurs within a public agency could be of concern to the public, Terrell, 792 F.2d at 1362 (emphasis in original), a full-fledged form and context analysis is appropriate in these instances. 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. See Connick, 461 U.S. at 149, 103 S.Ct. at 1691. 5 35 In our own case, O'Connor's allegations were not limited to internal personnel procedures, affecting only himself and other Department employees. Rather, O'Connor's revelations directly implicated a topic of inherent concern to the community--official misconduct by an incumbent elected official. Given their direct bearing on Steeves' fitness for elective office, we think O'Connor's allegations of improper purchases clearly constituted a matter of legitimate public concern, obviating the need for a threshold analysis of his dominant motive for speaking out on these issues. 6 Accordingly, we reject the Town's contentions, based on the form and context of O'Connor's speech, that O'Connor's personal motives should result in the denial of First Amendment protection at the threshold. Cf. Pickering, 391 U.S. at 572, 88 S.Ct. at 1736 (recognizing that government employees are, as a class, the members of a community most likely to have informed and definite opinions about allocation of funds).
36 As the content of O'Connor's allegations was of inherent public concern for First Amendment purposes, we proceed to the second test. Under Pickering, we are required to balance the significance of the interests served by the public-employee speech--including the employee's interests in communicating, and the interests of the community in receiving, information on matters of public importance--against the governmental employer's legitimate interests in preventing unnecessary disruptions and inefficiencies in carrying out its public service mission. 391 U.S. at 568-575, 88 S.Ct. at 1734-38. 37 We note at the outset that O'Connor's motives for speaking out are properly weighed in the balance under Pickering. See, e.g., Versarge v. Township of Clinton, 984 F.2d 1359, 1366 (3d Cir.1993) (according little weight, under Pickering, to plaintiff's vengeful and obstructionist interests in speaking out on issue of public concern). Thus, insofar as self-interest is found to have motivated public-employee speech, the employee's expression is entitled to less weight in the Pickering balance than speech on matters of public concern intended to serve the public interest. Id. Furthermore, we agree with the district court that O'Connor's motives, prominently including the evident self-interest in preserving his position as Superintendent, were less than altruistic. 38 Nevertheless, the legitimate interest of the Town's electorate in the type of information disclosed by O'Connor represents a public benefit entitled to great weight in the Pickering balance. Id. (citing O'Donnell v. Yanchulis, 875 F.2d 1059, 1061 (3d Cir.1989)) (On plaintiff's side of the balance, we must also consider the interests of the public in plaintiff's speech). O'Connor's disclosures concerned alleged abuse of public office on the part of an elected official, a matter traditionally occupying the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values. Connick, 461 U.S. at 145, 103 S.Ct. at 1689. 7 The strong public interest in such disclosures supplements O'Connor's relatively slight personal interest in speaking out, heavily weighting the Pickering scale in favor of First Amendment protection against retaliation for O'Connor's speech. 8 39 On the other side of the Pickering scale, the Town has yet to demonstrate its legitimate interest, as employer, in curtailing the specific disclosures which O'Connor alleges were the basis for his termination. Although the Town has shown considerable disruption in the Department operations, and serious deterioration in the working relations between O'Connor and Steeves, and their respective factions, it has not yet met its burden of showing that the disruption was attributable to the exercise of O'Connor's First Amendment right to speak out on this subject, so as to warrant discharging him on speech-related grounds. On the contrary, the disruption which occurred in Department operations may as readily be attributed to unrelated factors: for example, to Steeves' allegedly unauthorized interference in the Department operations. See, e.g., Zamboni, 847 F.2d at 79 (in evaluating the disruption, if any, that resulted from [plaintiff's] criticisms ... the district court must consider whether any unrest was caused directly by [the plaintiff's] speech or whether it was exacerbated by defendants' actions). Notwithstanding O'Connor's status as a policymaking or confidential employee, see Kinsey v. Salado Indep. Sch. Dist., 950 F.2d 988, 995 (5th Cir.1992), whose position required close working relations with the Board of Selectmen, including Steeves, we cannot assume, absent some showing by defendants, that the erosion of their working relationship was due to O'Connor's protected speech. See Brasslett, 761 F.2d at 845-46 (defendants must show that ... [plaintiff's] allegedly protected activity had a detrimental impact on working relationships) (emphasis added); see also Versarge, 984 F.2d at 1367-68 (declining to consider disruptive effects of speech that was not alleged by defendants as grounds for plaintiff's expulsion). 40 One final point warrants mention. As the district court properly noted, O'Connor failed on several occasions to publicize his allegations of Steeves' misconduct directly to the community; instead, he chose to direct his disclosures to the Board of Selectmen. 9 Nevertheless, the decision to disclose his allegations to the Board, rather than the community at large, did not eliminate O'Connor's First Amendment interest in speaking out. See, e.g., Givhan v. Western Line Consol. Sch. Dist., 439 U.S. 410, 415-16, 99 S.Ct. 693, 696-97, 58 L.Ed.2d 619 (1979) (employee retains personal First Amendment right to comment on issues of public concern, even if comments are made in private; [n]either the Amendment itself nor our decisions indicate that [the right to speak out is] lost to the public employee who arranges to communicate privately with his employer rather than to spread his views before the public); see also Rankin, 483 U.S. at 378, 107 S.Ct. at 2891 (private comment to co-worker held protected under Pickering balance). Moreover, in addition to controlling O'Connor's employment, the Board of Selectmen is the Town's highest elective body, with representative responsibility for acting in the best interests of the Town and its citizenry. Hence, O'Connor's decision to address the Board, rather than the community at large, was no mere private communication, nor did it in any sense extinguish the inherent public interest in his disclosures of Steeves' alleged misconduct. 10 Everything considered, and viewing the record in the light most favorable to O'Connor, we are unable to conclude that the Town's interest in suppressing O'Connor's speech outweighed the importance of the legitimate public interest in O'Connor's disclosures. 11 5. Causation 41 The Town may have reserved its strongest defense for the next round. On the record before us, O'Connor would have grave difficulty demonstrating that the protected speech was a substantial or motivating factor in his discharge by the Town. Mt. Healthy, 429 U.S. at 274, 97 S.Ct. at 568. 12 O'Connor's alleged lack of qualifications for the Superintendent's position, combined with the public concern over the Town water crisis, may well have provided neutral, non-speech related reasons for Edwards' and Steeves' votes against O'Connor's retention. Unless O'Connor can present evidence demonstrating that the discharge was motivated by his protected speech, the Town may yet be entitled to judgment under the Mt. Healthy test. We are not in a position to make this determination, however, as the Town assumed, for summary judgment purposes, a causal link between the protected speech and O'Connor's subsequent discharge. III