Court Opinion

ID: 9483950
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:36:19.832311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:56.024093
License: Public Domain

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I believe that the district court correctly concluded that plaintiff had failed to make out a submissible case on a causal connection between her speech and her termination; and my views on this do not change even after seeing an affidavit submitted by plaintiff, after summary judgment, that the district court refused permission to file. I am, however, unable to join the court’s opinion because, with respect, I think that it much too narrowly defines what kind of speech is protected under Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 103 S.Ct. 1684, 75 L.Ed.2d 708 (1983). In my view, speech that either directly, or by reasonable inference, criticizes public officials’ use of the public’s funds lies at the core of the speaker’s First Amendment rights. I believe that this is the proper characterization of the case before us. This is not a case in which the plaintiff was speaking “upon matters only of personal interest,” id. at 147, 103 S.Ct. at 1690.