1st amendment violation

By: Derek Hawkins//June 6, 2016//

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Lincoln Brown v. Chicago Board of Education

Case No.: 15-1857

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and SYKES and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges

Focus: 1^st amendment violation

Suspension of teacher for poorly executed discussion of racial epithets did not violate constitutional rights.

“Brown is indignant that he was suspended for using a ra‐ cial slur while attempting to teach his students why such lan‐ guage is inappropriate. His frustration is understandable, but it is not legally actionable. This is really a First Amendment case, which gains nothing from the addition of the substantive due process argument. And from a First Amendment stand‐ point, Garcetti dooms his position. The Board may have acted in a short‐sighted way when it suspended him for his effort to educate the students about a sensitive and socially important issue, but it did not trample on his First Amendment rights.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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