Mayer v. Monroe County Cmty. Sch. Corp., No. 06-1993 (7th Cir. Jan. 24, 2007)
In a short, unanimous panel decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that a public elementary school teacher’s free speech rights were not violated when she was prohibited from expressing her opinion of the war in Iraq during instructional time. During a class discussion of an article about peace marches in protest of U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Deborah Mayer, a probationary teacher at Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana, voiced the opinion that peace was preferable to war and said she personally supported the peace marchers. When parents complained, the school’s principal told all teachers to refrain from taking sides in political controversies in class. When the school district later failed to renew her contract, Ms. Mayer sued, alleging that the decision was based on her political expression and violated her First Amendment right to free speech. The U.S. district court granted summary judgment to the school district, holding that under Pickering v. Board of Educ., 391 U.S. 563 (1968), the employer’s interest in non-disruption of the workplace outweighed Ms. Mayer’s right to express her views. On appeal, the school district argued that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s subsequent ruling in Garcetti v. Ceballos, 126 S. Ct. 1951, 1960 (2006), no balancing of the employee’s and employer’s interests even is required, because a public employee who speaks pursuant to his or her official duties does not do so as a private citizens for First Amendment purposes. Ms. Mayer countered that principles of academic freedom supersede Garcetti in the classroom.
For purposes of this appeal, the Seventh Circuit had to assume the plaintiff’s allegation that she was fired for her political expression was true, so the court framed the issue as whether teachers in primary and secondary schools have a constitutional right to determine what they say in class. This, the court noted, was "not a novel question in this circuit." In Webster v. New Lenox Sch. Dist. No. 122, 917 F.2d 1004 (7th Cir. 1990), the court had rejected a teacher’s assertion that he had a constitutional right to teach that the earth is much younger than the textbook maintained, holding that "those authorities charged by state law with curriculum development [may] require the obedience of subordinate employees, including the classroom teacher." This is so, the court observed, "because the school system does not ‘regulate’ teachers’ speech as much as it hires that speech." Beyond the fact that teachers must provide the service for which employers are willing to pay—a fact the court found already made this case easier than Garcetti—students are a "captive audience" under compulsory education laws, and "[c]hildren who attend school because they must ought not be subject to teachers’ idiosyncratic perspectives." Even if majority rule has the potential under elected school boards to turn into indoctrination, "the power should be reposed in someone the people can vote out of office, rather than tenured teachers. At least the board’s views can be debated openly, and the people may choose to elect persons committed to neutrality on contentious issues." Garcetti applied because the teacher’s remarks were within the scope of her instructional duties, the court concluded, and the First Amendment "does not entitle primary and secondary teachers, when conducting the education of captive audiences, to cover topics, or advocate viewpoints, that depart from the curriculum adopted by the school system."
Mayer v. Monroe County Cmty. Sch. Corp., No. 06-1993 (7th Cir. Jan. 24, 2007)
[Full opinion]
[Editor’s Note: NSBA, joined by the American Association of School Administrators and the state school boards associations of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, filed an amicus brief supporting the school district in the case. The district court’s ruling, which details more of the facts in the case, is summarized at the second link below. The Legal Clips summary of Garcetti is at the third link, from which readers also can access NSBA’s brief in that case. COSA board member Thomas Wheeler of Locke Reynolds LLP in Indianapolis argued the Mayer case and was part of NSBA’s brief-writing team in Garcetti.]
[NSBA et al. amicus brief]
[NSBA School Law pages on Mayer v. Monroe County Community Sch. Corp.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Garcetti v. Ceballos]