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Labor and Employment Law

Washington Law Review

Journal

2012

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Talking Drugs: The Burden Of Proof In Post-Garcetti Speech Retaliation Claims, Thomas E. Hudson Oct 2012

Talking Drugs: The Burden Of Proof In Post-Garcetti Speech Retaliation Claims, Thomas E. Hudson

Washington Law Review

Law Enforcement agencies fire their employees for speaking out in favor of drug legalization, which leads the employees to sue their former employers for violating their First Amendment Free Speech rights. These employee claims fall under the U.S. Supreme Court’s complex speech retaliation test, most recently articulated in Garcetti v. Ceballos. The analysis reveals that circuit courts are inconsistent as to who bears the burden of proving that they prevail under “Pickering balancing,” and how they should construct that burden. This Comment argues that U.S. Supreme Court precedent demands that the employer bears the “Pickering balancing” burden, and that …


High-Tech Harassment: Employer Liability Under Title Vii For Employee Social Media Misconduct, Jeremy Gelms Mar 2012

High-Tech Harassment: Employer Liability Under Title Vii For Employee Social Media Misconduct, Jeremy Gelms

Washington Law Review

Workplace harassment has traditionally occurred within the “four walls” of the workplace. In Faragher v. City of Boca Raton and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that employers are liable under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for harassment that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the employee’s work environment. The rise in social media, however, has created a new medium through which harassment occurs. Courts are just beginning to confront the issue of if and when to consider social media harassment as part of the totality of the circumstances of a Title …