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Out Of Balance: Wrong Turns In Public Employee Speech Law, Michael Toth
Out Of Balance: Wrong Turns In Public Employee Speech Law, Michael Toth
University of Massachusetts Law Review
Although scholars offer a variety of explanations for the modern Supreme Court’s public employee speech jurisprudence, they share a common presumption. According to the standard account, the modern era of public employee free speech law began in 1968, with the Court’s adoption of a balancing test in Pickering v. Board of Education. Contrary to this view, this Article argues that Pickering balancing is better characterized as a relic from a bygone era rather than the start of a new one. Balancing was once the Court’s standard method of judging First Amendment claims. When Pickering was decided, however, balancing was under …