Court Opinion

ID: 9429165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:52.031251+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:17.562138
License: Public Domain

Justice Brennan,
with whom Justice Marshall, Justice Blackmun, and Justice Stevens join, dissenting.
Sheila Myers was discharged for circulating a questionnaire to her fellow Assistant District Attorneys seeking information about the effect of petitioner’s personnel policies on employee morale and the overall work performance of the District Attorney’s Office. The Court concludes that her dismissal does not violate the First Amendment, primarily because the questionnaire addresses matters that, in the Court’s view, are not of public concern. It is hornbook law, however, that speech about “the manner in which government is operated or should be operated” is an essential part of the communications necessary for self-governance the protection of which was a central purpose of the First Amendment. Mills v. Alabama, 384 U. S. 214, 218 (1966). Because the questionnaire addressed such matters and its distribution did not adversely affect the operations of the District Attorney’s Office or interfere with Myers’ working relationship with her fellow employees, I dissent.
The Court correctly reaffirms the long-established principle that the government may not constitutionally compel persons to relinquish their First Amendment rights as a condition of public employment. E. g., Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U. S. 589, 605-606 (1967); Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U. S. 563, 568 (1968); Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U. S. 593, 597 (1972). Pickering held that the First Amendment protects the rights of public employees “as citizens to comment on matters of public interest” in connection with the operation of the government agencies for which they work. 391 U. S., at 568. We recognized, however, that the *157government has legitimate interests in regulating the speech of its employees that differ significantly from its interests in regulating the speech of people generally. Ibid. We therefore held that the scope of public employees’ First Amendment rights must be determined by 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.” Ibid.
The balancing test articulated in Pickering comes into play only when a public employee’s speech implicates the government’s interests as an; employer. When public employees engage in expression unrelated to their employment while away from the workplace, their First Amendment rights are, of course, no different from those of the general public. See id., at 574. Thus, whether a public employee’s speech addresses a matter of public concern is relevant to the constitutional inquiry only when the statements at issue — by virtue of their content or ¡the context in which they were made— may have an adverse impact on the government’s ability to perform its duties efficiently.1
The Court’s decision today is flawed in three respects. First, the Court distorts the balancing analysis required under Pickering by suggesting that one factor, the context in which a statement is made, is to be weighed twice — first in *158determining whether an employee’s speech addresses a matter of public concern and then in deciding whether the statement adversely affected the government’s interest as an employer. See ante, at 147-148, 152-153. Second, in concluding that the effect of respondent’s personnel policies on employee morale and the work performance of the District Attorney’s Office is not a matter of public concern, the Court impermissibly narrows the class of subjects on which public employees may speak out without fear of retaliatory dismissal. See ante, at 148-149. Third, the Court misapplies the Pickering balancing test in holding that Myers could constitutionally be dismissed for circulating a questionnaire addressed to at least one subject that was “a matter of interest to the community,” ante, at 149, in the absence of evidence that her conduct disrupted the efficient functioning of the District Attorney’s Office.
II
The District Court summarized the contents of respondent’s questionnaire as follows:
“Plaintiff solicited the views of her fellow Assistant District Attorneys on a number of issues, including office transfer policies and the manner in which information of that nature was communicated within the office. The questionnaire also sought to determine the views of Assistants regarding office morale, the need for a grievance committee, and the level of confidence felt by the Assistants for their supervisors. Finally, the questionnaire inquired as to whether the Assistants felt pressured to work in political campaigns on behalf of office-supported candidates.” 507 F. Supp. 752, 758 (ED La. 1981).
After reviewing the evidence, the District Court found that “[t]aken as a whole, the issues presented in the questionnaire relate to the effective functioning of the District Attorney’s Office and are matters of public importance and concern.” Ibid. The Court of Appeals affirmed on the basis of *159the District Court’s findings and conclusions. 654 F. 2d 719 (CA5 1981). The Court nonetheless concludes that Myers’ questions about the effect of petitioner’s personnel policies on employee morale and overall work performance are not “of public import in evaluating the performance of the District Attorney as an elected official.” Ante, at 148. In so doing, it announces the following standard: “Whether an employee’s speech addresses a matter of public concern must be determined by the content, form, and context of a given statement ...” Ante, at 147-148.
The standard announced by the Court suggests that the manner and context in which a statement is made must be weighed on both sides of the Pickering balance. It is beyond dispute that how and where a public employee expresses his views are relevant in the second half of the Pickering inquiry — determining whether the employee’s speech adversely affects the government’s interests as an employer. The Court explicitly acknowledged this in Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School District, 439 U. S. 410 (1979), where we stated that when a public employee speaks privately to a supervisor, “the employing agency’s institutional efficiency may be threatened not only by the content of the . . . message but also by the manner, time, and place in which it is delivered.” Id., at 415, n. 4. But the fact that a public employee has chosen to express his views in private has nothing whatsoever to do with the first half of the Pickering calculus — whether those views relate to a matter of public concern. This conclusion is implicit in Givhan’& holding that the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment is not “lost to the public employee who arranges to communicate privately with his employer rather than to spread his views before the public.” 439 U. S., at 415-416.
The Court seeks to distinguish Givhan on the ground that speech protesting racial discrimination is “inherently of public concern.” Ante, at 148, n. 8. In so doing, it suggests that there are two classes of speech of public concern: statements “of public import” because of their content, form, and con*160text, and statements that, by virtue of their subject matter, are “inherently of public concern.” In my view, however, whether a particular statement by a public employee is addressed to a subject of public concern does not depend on where it was said or why. The First Amendment affords special protection to speech that may inform public debate about how our society is to be governed — regardless of whether it actually becomes the subject of a public controversy.2
“[S]peech concerning public affairs is more than self-expression; it is the essence of self-government. ” Garrison v. *161Louisiana, 379 U. S. 64, 74-75 (1964). “The maintenance of the opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes may be obtained by lawful means, an opportunity essential to the security of the Republic, is a fundamental principle of our constitutional system.” Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359, 369 (1931).
We have long recognized that one of the central purposes of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of expression is to protect the dissemination of information on the basis of which members of our society may make reasoned decisions about the government. Mills v. Alabama, 384 U. S., at 218-219; New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 269-270 (1964). See A. Meiklejohn, Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government 22-27 (1948). “No aspect of that constitutional guarantee is more rightly treasured than its protection of the ability of our people through free and open debate to consider and resolve their own destiny.” Saxbe v. Washington Post Co., 417 U. S. 843, 862 (1974) (Powell, J., dissenting).
Unconstrained discussion concerning the manner in which the government performs its duties is an essential element of the public discourse necessary to informed self-government.
“Whatever differences may exist about interpretations of the First Amendment, there is practically universal agreement that a major purpose of that Amendment was to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs. This of course includes discussions of candidates, structures and forms of government, the manner in which government is operated or should be operated, and all such matters relating to political processes.” Mills v. Alabama, supra, at 218-219 (emphasis added).
*162The constitutionally protected right to speak out on governmental affairs would be meaningless if it did not extend to statements expressing criticism of governmental officials. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, supra, we held that the Constitution prohibits an award of damages in a libel action brought by a public official for criticism of his official conduct absent a showing that the false statements at issue were made with “‘actual malice.’” 376 U. S., at 279-280. We stated there that the First Amendment expresses “a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” Id., at 270. See Garrison v. Louisiana, supra, at 76.
In Pickering we held that the First Amendment affords similar protection to critical statements by a public school teacher directed at the Board of Education for whom he worked. 391 U. S., at 574. In so doing, we recognized that “free and open debate” about the operation of public schools “is vital to informed decision-making by the electorate. ” Id., at 571-572. We also acknowledged the importance of allowing teachers to speak out on school matters.
“Teachers are, as a class, the members of a community most likely to have informed and definite opinions as to how funds allotted to the operation of the schools should be spent. Accordingly, it is essential that they be able to speak out freely on such questions without fear of retaliatory dismissal.” Id., at 572.
See also Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U. S. 134, 228 (1974) (Marshall, J., dissenting) (describing “[t]he importance of Government employees’ being assured of their right to freely comment on the conduct of Government, to inform the public of abuses of power and of the misconduct of their superiors . . .”).
*163Applying these principles, I would hold that Myers’ questionnaire addressed matters of public concern because it discussed subjects that could reasonably be expected to be of interest to persons seeking to develop informed opinions about the manner in which the Orleans Parish District Attorney, an elected official charged with managing a vital governmental agency, discharges his responsibilities. The questionnaire sought primarily to obtain information about the impact of the recent transfers on morale in the District Attorney’s Office. It is beyond doubt that personnel decisions that adversely affect discipline and morale may ultimately impair an agency’s efficient performance of its duties. See Arnett v. Kennedy, supra, at 168 (opinion of Powell, J.). Because I believe the First Amendment protects the right of public employees to discuss such matters so that the public may be better informed about how their elected officials fulfill their responsibilities, I would affirm the District Court’s conclusion that the questionnaire related to matters of public importance and concern.
The Court’s adoption of a far narrower conception of what subjects are of public concern seems prompted by its fears that a broader view “would mean that virtually every remark — and certainly every criticism directed at a public official — would plant the seed of a constitutional case.” Ante, at 149. Obviously, not every remark directed at a public official by a public employee is protected by the First Amendment.3 But deciding whether a particular matter is of public concern is an inquiry that, by its very nature, is a sensitive one for judges charged with interpreting a constitutional provision intended to put “the decision as to what views shall be *164voiced largely into the hands of each of us ... Cohen v. California, 403 U. S. 15, 24 (1971).4 The Court recognized the sensitive nature of this determination in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U. S. 323 (1974), which held that the scope of the constitutional privilege in defamation cases turns on whether or not the plaintiff is a public figure, not on whether the statements at issue address a subject of public concern. In so doing, the Court referred to the “difficulty of forcing state and federal judges to decide on an ad hoc basis which publications address issues of ‘general or public interest’ and which do not,” and expressed “doubt [about] the wisdom of committing this task to the conscience of judges.” Id., at 346. See also Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U. S. 29, 79 (1971) (Marshall, J., dissenting). In making such a delicate inquiry, we must bear in mind that “the citizenry is the final judge of the proper conduct of public business.” Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U. S. 469, 495 (1975).
The Court’s decision ignores these precepts. Based on its own narrow conception of which matters are of public concern, the Court implicitly determines that information con*165cerning employee morale at an important government office will not inform public debate. To the contrary, the First Amendment protects the dissemination of such information so that the people, not the courts, may evaluate its usefulness. The proper means to ensure that the courts are not swamped with routine employee grievances mischaracterized as First Amendment cases is not to restrict artificially the concept of “public concern,” but to require that adequate weight be given to the public’s important interests in the efficient performance of governmental functions and in preserving employee discipline and harmony sufficient to achieve that end. See Part III, infra.5
*166III
Although the Court finds most of Myers’ questionnaire unrelated to matters of public interest, it does hold that one question — asking whether Assistants felt pressured to work in political campaigns on behalf of office-supported candidates — addressed a matter of public importance and concern. The Court also recognizes that this determination of public interest must weigh heavily in the balancing of competing interests required by Pickering. Having gone that far, however, the Court misapplies the Pickering test and holds— against our previous authorities — that a public employer’s mere apprehension that speech will be disruptive justifies suppression of that speech when all the objective evidence suggests that those fears are essentially unfounded.
Pickering recognized the difficulty of articulating “a general standard against which all . . . statements may be judged,” 391 U. S., at 569; it did, however, identify a number of factors that may affect the balance in particular cases. Those relevant here áre whether the statements are directed to persons with whom the speaker “would normally be in contact in the course of his daily work”; whether they had an adverse effect on “discipline by immediate superiors or harmony among coworkers”; whether the employment relationship in question is “the kind ... for which it can per*167suasively be claimed that personal loyalty and confidence are necessary to their proper functioning”; and whether the statements “have in any way either impeded [the employee’s] proper performance of his daily duties . . . or . . . interfered with the regular operation of the [office].” Id., at 568-573. In addition, in Givhan, we recognized that when the statements in question are made in private to an employee’s immediate supervisor, “the employing agency’s institutional efficiency may be threatened not only by the content of the . . . message but also by the manner, -time, and place in which it is delivered.” 439 U. S., at 415, n. 4. See supra, at 159.
The District Court weighed all of the relevant factors identified by our cases. It found that petitioner failed to establish that Myers violated either a duty of confidentiality or an office policy. 507 F. Supp., at 758-759. Noting that most of the copies of the questionnaire were distributed during lunch, it rejected the contention that the distribution of the questionnaire impeded Myers’ performance of her duties, and it concluded that “Connick has not shown any evidence to indicate that the plaintiff’s work performance was adversely affected by her expression.” Id., at 754-755, 759 (emphasis supplied).
The Court accepts all of these findings. See ante, at 151. It concludes, however, that the District Court failed to give adequate weight to the context in which the questionnaire was distributed and to the need to maintain close working relationships in the District Attorney’s Office. In particular, the Court suggests the District Court failed to give sufficient weight to the disruptive potential of Question 10, which asked whether the Assistants had confidence in the word of five named supervisors. Ante, at 152. The District Court, however, explicitly recognized that this was petitioner’s “most forceful argument”; but after hearing the testimony of four of the five supervisors named in the question, it found that the question had no adverse effect on Myers’ relationship with her superiors. 507 F. Supp., at 759.
*168To this the Court responds that an employer need not wait until the destruction of working relationships is manifest before taking action. In the face of the District Court’s finding that the circulation of the questionnaire had no disruptive effect, the Court holds that respondent may be dismissed because petitioner “reasonably believed [the action] would disrupt the office, undermine his authority, and destroy close working relationships.” Ante, at 154. Even though the District Court found that the distribution of the questionnaire did not impair Myers’ working relationship with her supervisors, the Court bows to petitioner’s judgment because “[w]hen close working relationships are essential to fulfilling public responsibilities, a wide degree of deference to the employer’s judgment is appropriate.” Ante, at 151-152.
Such extreme deference to the employer’s judgment is not appropriate when public employees voice critical views concerning the operations of the agency for which they work. Although an employer’s determination that an employee’s statements have undermined essential working relationships must be carefully weighed in the Pickering balance, we must bear in mind that “the threat of dismissal from public employment is ... a potent means of inhibiting speech.” Pickering, 391 U. S., at 574. See Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U. S., at 604. If the employer’s judgment is to be controlling, public employees will not speak out when what they have to say is critical of their supervisors. In order to protect public employees’ First Amendment right to voice critical views on issues of public importance, the courts must make their own appraisal of the effects of the speech in question.
In this regard, our decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U. S. 503 (1969), is controlling. Tinker arose in a public school, a context similar to the one in which the present case arose in that the determination of the scope of the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech required consideration of the “special *169characteristics of the . . . environment” in which the expression took place. See id., at 506. At issue was whether public high school students could constitutionally be prohibited from wearing black armbands in school to express their opposition to the Vietnam conflict. The District Court had ruled that such a ban “was reasonable because it was based upon [school officials’] fear of a disturbance from the wearing of armbands.” Id., at 508. We found that justification inadequate, because “in our system, undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression.” Ibid. We concluded:
“In order for the State ... to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint. Certainly where there is no finding and no showing that engaging in the forbidden conduct would ‘materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school,’ the prohibition cannot be sustained.” Id., at 509 (emphasis supplied) (quoting Burnside v. Byars, 363 F. 2d 744, 749 (CA5 1966)).
Because the speech at issue addressed matters of public importance, a similar standard should be applied here. After reviewing the evidence, the District Court found that “it cannot be said that the defendant’s interest in promoting the efficiency of the public services performed through his employees was either adversely affected or substantially impeded by plaintiff’s distribution of the questionnaire.” 507 F. Supp., at 759. Based on these findings the District Court concluded that the circulation of the questionnaire was protected by the First Amendment. The District Court applied the proper legal standard and reached an acceptable accommodation between the competing interests. I would affirm its decision and the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
*170> I — I
The Court s decision today inevitably will deter public employees from making critical statements about the manner in which government agencies are operated for fear that doing so will provoke their dismissal. As a result, the public will be deprived of valuable information with which to evaluate the performance of elected officials. Because protecting the dissemination of such information is an essential function of the First Amendment, I dissent.

 Although the Court’s opinion states that “if 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,” ante, at 146 (footnote omitted), I do not understand it to imply that a governmental employee’s First Amendment rights outside the employment context are limited to speech on matters of public concern. To the extent that the Court’s opinion may be read to suggest that the dismissal of a public employee for speech unrelated to a subject of public interest does not implicate First Amendment interests, I disagree, because our cases establish that public employees enjoy the full range of First Amendment rights guaranteed to members of the general public. Under the balancing test articulated in Pickering, however, the government’s burden to justify such a dismissal may be lighter. See n. 4, infra.

 Although the parties offered no evidence on whether the subjects addressed by the questionnaire were, in fact, matters of public concern, extensive local press coverage shows that the issues involved are of interest to the people of Orleans Parish. Shortly after the District Court took the case under advisement, a major daily newspaper in New Orleans carried a 7-paragraph story describing the questionnaire, the events leading to Myers’ dismissal, and the filing of this action. The Times-Picayune/The States-Item, Dee. 6, 1980, section 1, p. 21, col. 1. The same newspaper also carried a 16-paragraph story when the District Court ruled .in Myers’ favor, Feb. 11, 1981, section 1, p. 15, col. 2; a 14-paragraph story when the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s decision, July 28, 1981, section 1, p. 11, col. 1; a 12-paragraph story when this Court granted Connick’s petition for certiorari, Mar. 9,1982, section 1, p. 15, col. 5.; and a 17-paragraph story when we heard oral argument, Nov. 9, 1982, section 1, p. 13, col. 5.
In addition, matters affecting the internal operations of the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office often receive extensive coverage in the same newspaper. For example, The Times-Picayune/The States-Item carried a lengthy story reporting that the agency moved to “plush new offices,” and describing in detail the “privacy problem” faced by Assistant District Attorneys because the office was unable to obtain modular furniture with which to partition its new space. Jan. 25,1981, section 8, p. 13, col. 1. It also carried a 16-paragraph story when a committee of the Louisiana State Senate voted to prohibit petitioner from retaining a public relations specialist. July 9, 1982, section 1, p. 14, col. 1.
In light of the public’s interest in the operations of the District Attorney’s Office in general, and in the dispute between the parties in particular, it is quite possible that, contrary to the Court’s view, ante, at 148-149, Myers’ comments concerning morale and working conditions in the office would actually have engaged the public’s attention had she stated them publicly.
*161Moreover, as a general matter, the media frequently carry news stories reporting that personnel policies in effect at a government agency have resulted in declining employee morale and deteriorating agency performance.

 Perhaps the simplest example of a statement by a public employee that would not be protected by the First Amendment would be answering “No” to a request that the employee perform a lawful task within the scope of his duties. Although such a refusal is “speech,” which implicates First Amendment interests, it is also insubordination, and as such it may serve as the basis for a lawful dismissal.

 Indeed, it has been suggested that “a classification that bases the right to First Amendment protection.on some estimate of how much general interest there is in the communication is surely in conflict with the whole idea of the First Amendment.” T. Emerson, The System of Freedom of Expression 554 (1970). The degree to which speech is of interest to the public may be relevant in determining whether a public employer may constitutionally be required to tolerate some degree of disruption resulting from its utterance. See ante, at 152. In general, however, whether a government employee’s speech is of “public concern” must be determined by reference to the broad conception of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech found necessary by the Framers
“to supply the public need for information and education with respect to the significant issues of the times. . . . Freedom of discussion, if it would fulfill its historic function in this nation, must embrace all issues about which information is needed or appropriate to enable the members of society to cope with the exigencies of their period.” Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88, 102 (1940) (footnote omitted).
See Wood v. Georgia, 370 U. S. 375, 388 (1962).

 The Court’s narrow conception of which matters are of public interest is also inconsistent with the broad view of that concept articulated in our cases dealing with the constitutional limits on liability for invasion of privacy. In Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U. S. 374 (1967), we held that a defendant may not constitutionally be held liable for an invasion of privacy resulting from the publication of a false or misleading report of “matters of public interest” in the absence of proof that the report was published with knowledge of its falsity or reckless disregard for its truth. Id., at 389-391. In that action, Hill had sought damages resulting from the publication of an allegedly false report that a new play portrayed the experience of him and his family when they were held hostage in their home in a publicized incident years earlier. We entertained “no doubt that. . . the opening of a new play linked to an actual incident, is a matter of public interest.” Id., at 388. See also Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U. S. 469 (1975) (holding that a radio station could not constitutionally be held liable for broadcasting the name of a rape victim, because the victim’s name was contained in public records). Our discussion in Time, Inc. v. Hill of the breadth of the First Amendment’s protections is directly relevant here:
“The guarantees for speech and press are not the preserve of political expression or comment upon public affairs, essential as those are to healthy government. One need only pick up any newspaper or magazine to comprehend the vast range of published matter which jxposes persons to public view, both private citizens and public officials. . . . ‘Freedom of discussion, if it would fulfill its historic function in this nation, must embrace all issues about which information is needed or appropriate to enable the members of society to cope with the exigencies of their period.’ Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88, 102. ‘No suggestion can be found in the Constitution that the freedom there guaranteed for speech and the press bears *166an inverse ratio to the timeliness and importance of the ideas seeking expression.’ Bridges v. California, 314 U. S. 252, 269.” 385 U. S., at 388.
The quoted passage makes clear that, contrary to the Court’s view, ante, at 143, n. 5, the subjects touched upon in respondent’s questionnaire fall within the broad conception of “matters of public interest” that defines the scope of the constitutional privilege in invasion of privacy cases. See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 652D, Comment j (1977):
“The scope of a matter of legitimate concern to the public is not limited to ‘news,’ in the sense of reports of current events or activities. It extends also to the use of names, likenesses or facts in giving information to the public for purposes of education, amusement or enlightenment, when the public may reasonably be expected to have a legitimate interest in what is published.”