High Court Rejects Public Employee Free Speech Question

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the scope of a public employee’s right to freedom of speech, rejecting a petition to consider a case in which a county worker in Colorado was fired because he testified at a custody hearing for a family member.

The justices on Dec. 6 won’t reconsider a ruling against Jerud Butler from a divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The en banc court determined that truthful testimony at a custody hearing didn’t fall under First Amendment protections because it wasn’t a “matter of public concern.” The worker’s attorneys say the court ...