United States Seventh Circuit

In a case involving prison guards' suit against other guards, complaint handlers, sheriff, and a County, after plaintiffs' peers allegedly threatened to kill them, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) requiring guards to report, or maintain a code of silence, on misconduct by their colleagues is not part of freedom of speech as the first amendment does not protect statements made as part of one's job; and 2) a prior-restraint claim, that plaintiffs were bullied and threatened in order to deter them from testifying in a separate suit by inmates, was erroneously dismissed.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/06/2009
• Decided 08/20/2009
• Published 08/20/2009

Judges

• EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge., Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and POSNER and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Matthew J. Piers (argued), Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd., Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Daniel Patrick Duffy, Peterson, Johnson & Murray, John T. Roache, Jr. (argued), Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP, Matthew Patrick Walsh, II, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Michael J. Hayes, K & L Gates LLP, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.