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US Supreme Court Docket # 06-1
July 09, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
The first US Supreme Court certiorari petition of the 2006-2007 session is an employment law case: Averill Park Central School District v. Cioffi, Docket number 06-1.
I don't see the Court being interested in this one. They decide only about 75 cases each year, out of thousands of petitions, and there needs to be a good reason to pick one case out of the many.
The case involves a public school teacher (and athletic director) who spoke out about a serious hazing incident to his employer - the school board. He claims his job was abolished because of this, so he sued claiming retaliation in violation of the 1st amendment.
The 2nd Circuit looked at the case (Cioffi v. Averill Park Central School District (2nd Cir 04/04/2006)) and concluded that the teacher was speaking out on a matter of public concern, and that he had 1st amendment protection. In passing, the 2nd Circuit distinguished the case from Garcetti v. Ceballos (US Supreme Court 05/30/2006), even though Garcetti had not yet been decided.
The Supreme Court might summarily remand for reconsideration in light of the Garcetti decision, but don't expect to see a full-blown decision on this one.
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Editor: Ross Runkel, Professor of Law Emeritus. email Ross@LawMemo.Com, Phone 503-399-8028. Copyright LawMemo, Inc.
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