Public employees have First Amendment rights but they are limited by the employment relationship. In one decision, Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006; see LegalSpeak, p. 54), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public employees do not have free-speech protection for speech made pursuant to their official job duties. However, if a citizen speaks more as a citizen than an employee, the courts will apply a two-part test from Pickering v. Board of Education (1968) and Connick v. Myers (1983). That test asks: (1) Did the employee’s speech touch on matters of public concern or importance; and (2) does the employee’s right to free speech trump the employer’s right to an efficient, disruptive-free workplace.

A problem in this area is that it is unclear when an employee is speaking pursuant to their official job duties. Sometimes a public employee may speak both as an employee and as a concerned citizen. Many courts look to the “core functions” of an employee’s job and try to determine whether the speech is required by the job.