Sheriff's Department Had Adequate Justification For Terminating Officer Who Compared Sheriff To Hitler
Joseph V. Curran sued the Essex County Sheriff's Department, the Sheriff, and others, asserting they terminated his employment as a correctional officer in retaliation for his speech, in violation of the First Amendment and the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
Curran had made statements on a union website comparing the sheriff to Hitler, those who followed the sheriff's instructions to Hitler's generals, and police officers to Jews who were marched into death chambers. The officer also referred to a plot by Hitler's generals to kill him, thus urging a similar plot by analogy.
The district court found that the public interest in the employee's speech was outweighed by the danger the speech would cause to the effective functioning of the Department and entered judgment for the defendants.
In its first case on the subject since the Supreme Court's opinion in Garcetti v. Ceballos, the 1st Circuit affirmed, holding that the sheriff's department had adequate justification for terminating Curran, and that the termination did not violate Curran’s speech rights.
Curran v. Cousins
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction includes Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island.