Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Randy Henry v. J. Bret Johnson, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, No. 18-3298 · judgment February 20, 2020
Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel with five or more prior petitions here, a circuit split argued in the petition, and an Eighth Circuit decision below.
Question presented
When a government employee speaks on a matter of public concern, may the government punish that employee
-
if the employee’s interest in freedom of speech is outweighed by possible adverse effect of the speech on the employer, regardless of whether the government’s purpose is to retaliate against the speaker because of the content of his or her speech, the rule in the Third and Eighth Circuits, or
-
only if both the employee’s interest in freedom of speech is outweighed by the possible adverse effect of the speech on the employer and the government’s purpose is to address that adverse effect, rather than to retaliate against the employee because of the content of the speech, the rule in the First, Second, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits?
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Eric Schnapper
Univ. of Washington School of Law
For respondent
Julie Marie Blake
Missouri Attorney General's Office
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Proceedings
- Nov 02 2020Petition DENIED. Justice Barrett took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.
- Oct 07 2020DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/30/2020.
- Sep 30 2020Waiver of right of respondent J. Bret Johnson, et al. to respond filed.
- Sep 04 2020Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 19, 2020)