Can public employees be disciplined for the content of their blogs?
That is a difficult question. Certainly, public employers have authority to prohibit employees from writing their blogs on employer time. The trickier question is whether a public employee can be disciplined for expression created on his or her own time. One theory is that since the expression was created off-duty, then the employer has no control over such content. A key factor could be whether the expression causes a disruption at the workplace. A few courts, for instance, have disciplined employees for racist comments they have made off-duty. This is a developing area of the law that merits close attention.
Related Questions
- We run a hotel, where employees are not permitted to browse to inappropriate content yet guests using a public Internet terminal are not restricted. How can we handle this situation?
- What can I do to prevent my child’s exposure to harmful content on the Internet in a public school setting?
- Can public employees be disciplined for the content of their blogs?