Boston Liable for Firing Police Officer Over January 6 Tweets

Boston won’t get a second chance to defend its firing of a police officer for his social media posts during the 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The city is barred from rearguing whether the firing of officer Joseph Abasciano violated the First Amendment because it had been fully litigated before the state’s Civil Service Commission, Judge Allison D. Burroughs ruled.

That finding stands “regardless of whether this Court agrees with the Commission’s resolution of this issue,” Burroughs, of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, said.

With that established, the court ruled ...