News Notes: Cop’s Sexually Explicit Videos On Internet Amounted To Protected Speech

San Diego police officer John Roe claimed his free speech rights were violated when he was fired for selling sexually explicit videos of himself on the Internet. The Ninth Circuit explained that a public employee’s speech is protected and cannot be abridged without good cause when it touches on a matter of “public concern” rather than a matter of private interest. An employee’s speech is of public concern when it is directed to a segment of the general public, occurs outside the workplace, and isn’t about his government employer. Roe’s activities were of public concern because he made and distributed the videos outside the workplace and sold them on the Internet, which meant his speech was directed to the general public. This ruling doesn’t mean the police department was powerless to take action against Roe, and a lower court will now decide whether the department’s interests outweighed Roe’s.