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Comment by harryh | Hacker News Reader

Ignoring for the moment that the union certainly wouldn't allow such firings this also seems like a 1st amendment issue. What does the court have to say about expressions of speech in this context?

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The military forbids its members from making political statements while in uniform. The police should probably have the same rule. If you want to campaign for/against someone, do it out of uniform.

I agree that this is probably a good rule.

On the other hand, when the mayor shows up at a police funeral to give a speech while the press is there, that's clearly a political statement. It doesn't seem fair to use the police as props (implying their support) while you have a rule saying they can't make a statement in reply.

The 1st doesn't protect from firing when you trash your employer in public. It protects your trashing, not employment :)

The first amendment doesn't apply to my employer as I work for a private company, so you are right there. But is that true for cops who work for the government? I'm honestly not sure.

When you are on the job for the government, you are acting as a government representative and not a private person. You can be fired for what you say while on the job.

However, the police unions would never allow such a thing.

First of all, we aren't even talking about the police saying anything out loud. We're talking about them turning their backs on the mayor while at a funeral which, while not verbal speech, is clearly a form of expression that would fall under the 1st amendment.

Second, I suspect that a majority of the officers in question were not on the job while attending that funeral.

The first amendment does apply to your employer in that he can't muzzle you, or have you beaten up from speaking out. The worst your employer can do is fire you, which happens often, and that's fine.

In fact my employer can muzzle me. I've signed various documents over the years that prevent my from speaking about my employer (or past employers) in various ways.

And the fact that my employer can't have me beaten up has nothing to do with the 1st amendment. That would be assault no matter what their motivation.

The fact that your employer can't have you beaten up is because assault is illegal, not because of your first amendment rights. The first amendment protects you from being thrown in jail by the government for your speech.

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Could not agree more.

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