Clerk Who Wouldn’t Tell Judge About Probe Gets Lawsuit Revived

A New York town and a former judge must face a court clerk’s First Amendment lawsuit challenging her firing for cooperating in an investigation of the judge for suspected misconduct, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

The decision reaffirms that speech by a public employee to a supervisor can be protected as being that of a private citizen if it wasn’t made further to their official job duties. Samantha Long, the former clerk of the Town Justice Court in New Lebanon, N.Y., plausibly stated a free-speech retaliation claim based on her refusal to discuss the probe with then Justice-Jessica Byrne, a ...