New York Times

June 20, 2014

By Adam Liptak

WASHINGTON — The First Amendment protects government employees from retaliation for giving truthful testimony that was not part of their job responsibilities, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The case involved Edward R. Lane, a former director of a youth program at a public community college in Alabama, who was fired after giving trial testimony in a public corruption trial.

“It would be antithetical to our jurisprudence,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court, “to conclude that the very kind of speech necessary to prosecute corruption by public officials — speech by public employees regarding information learned through their employment — may never form the basis for a First Amendment retaliation claim.”

“Such a rule,” she added, “would place public employees who witness corruption in an impossible position, torn between the obligation to testify truthfully and the desire to avoid retaliation and keep their jobs.”

Mr. Lane had discovered that a state legislator, Suzanne Schmitz, was on his program’s payroll, collecting $177,000, though she performed virtually no work. Mr. Lane fired her, and she vowed to get him back.

A federal grand jury indicted Ms. Schmitz on corruption charges. Mr. Lane, under subpoena, testified about what he had learned. Ms. Schmitz was convicted, sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay back the money.

Mr. Lane was nonetheless fired in 2009, and he sued the president of the college, Steve Franks, saying that his termination was retaliation for his testimony and a violation of his First Amendment rights. Mr. Franks said he let Mr. Lane go for financial reasons unrelated to his testimony.

The federal appeals court in Atlanta said it was unnecessary to decide who was right because public employees have no First Amendment protections for statements they make as part of their official duties.

Since “the record fails to establish that Lane testified as a citizen on a matter of public concern,” the appeals court said in an unsigned opinion, “he cannot state a claim for retaliation under the First Amendment.”

Justice Sotomayor said the appeals court was wrong on both points: Mr. Lane had testified as a citizen and his testimony was on a matter of public concern.

“Sworn testimony in judicial proceedings,” she wrote, “is a quintessential example of speech as a citizen for a simple reason: Anyone who testifies in court bears an obligation, to the court and society at large, to tell the truth.”

“That is so,” she added, “even when the testimony relates to his public employment or concerns information learned during that employment.”

Justice Sotomayor also had little difficulty in determining that Mr. Lane’s testimony — about “corruption in a public program and misuse of state funds” — was on a matter of public concern.

Thursday’s decision in Lane v. Franks, No. 13-483, clarified the scope of the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, which cut back on First Amendment protections for public employees and ruled that a prosecutor’s internal memorandum prepared as part of his job was unprotected.

Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurrence signed by Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr., said Thursday’s decision did not address testimony from, say, police officers and crime lab analysts for whom court appearances are “a routine and critical part of their employment duties.”

While Mr. Lane established an important legal principle, he will not benefit from it. In the second part of her opinion, Justice Sotomayor wrote that Mr. Franks, the official who fired him, was protected by qualified immunity.

That doctrine required Mr. Lane to show not only that his rights were violated, but also that those rights were clearly established at the time. Justice Sotomayor said Mr. Lane could not overcome the second hurdle.