Cygan v. Wisconsin Dept. of Corrections.

• Position: FREE SPEECH, EXPRESSION, ASSOC. - Brief Article

U.S. Appeals Court

STAFF

Cygan v. Wisconsin Dept. of Corrections, 388 F.3d 1092 (7th Cir. 2004). A former correctional officer at a maximum security prison filed a [section] 1983 action alleging they violated her constitutional rights by terminating her in retaliation for exercising her First Amendment rights. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants and the officer appealed. The appeals court affirmed. The court held that the officer raised a matter of public concern when she expressed disagreement with the decision to start a second-shift meal with fewer than ten officers, because it touched on issues of internal prison security, even though she could accurately be characterized as a disgruntled employee and her speech may have been partly motivated by her...