United States Tenth Circuit

In an action alleging that violated plaintiffs' First Amendment rights while they were employed at defendant school by unlawfully prohibiting them from meeting together to discuss school matters and retaliating against them when they did so, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where: 1) there was no authority suggesting that an employer who expressed a preference regarding employee association thereby imposed an unconstitutional prior restraint; 2) controlling precedent would not have put a reasonable administrator on notice that the speech at each meeting at issue, viewed in the aggregate, was protected by the First Amendment; and 3) the record does not support the conclusion that the school board ratified plaintiffs' supervisor's directives on employee speech. However, the judgment is reversed in part where there was no support for imposing the requirement that a government employee request clarification or complain to his supervisor before being permitted to file a complaint challenging his employer-s speech restrictions.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/21/2010
• Published 04/21/2010

Judges

• McKAY, Circuit Judge., Before GORSUCH, McKAY, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John R. Olsen of Olsen & Brown, LLC, Niwot, CO, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• M. Brent Case (Patrick B. Mooney and Holly Ortiz with him on the briefs) of Semple, Miller, Mooney & Farrington, P.C., Denver, CO, for Defendants-Appellees.