Mitchell v. Hillsborough County’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 federal appellate ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Gary Mitchell, 808 East Chelsea. And I am here representing the Thunderheads, you see? [indicating a lightning bolt taped to his beret] The Thunderheads is a political support group, and we are looking for more people to support, such as yourselves; therefore, I’ve come to address you all, letting you know our services are available to you. Right at the moment we are in full complete support of Ms. Storms. She is wonderful in every way. We have the highest regard for her. We think she is correct in all of her thinking. I think there’s a lot of people here that agree with me on that. Yes. [APPLAUSE] The only problem we have, Ms. Storms, is that our meetings since you brought up this preoccupation you have with other women’s vaginas, we are — the meetings are degenerating into one side wanting to call you Vagi, and the other side are [sic] saying Gina, Gina [pronounced ji-nah]. My position is Gina, I think that’s probably much more appropriate, okay? But I would like some time for you to make this clear to us which you would prefer to be called, Vagi or Gina, okay? Now, we’re liable— we’re happy to work with all of you for the rest of this. We love you. We love you. Do you mind if I call you Vagi or would you prefer me call you Gina? I prefer Gina. Anyway, we are the Thunderheads, and the reason we’re called Thunderheads is because storm clouds, you know, Thunderheads, storm clouds, yes. And we even — we even have our own special thunder wave, and we saved this for our best lov”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 806 F. Supp. 2d 1193 - Brown v. Greene County Commission

2. “Although a part-time employee, Mitchell frequently acted as a cameraman for BOCC meetings. After his speech at the April 17 meeting, Mitchell’s supervisors lost confidence that he could continue to work for HTV without significant disruption, particularly after Storms requested that no Public Access employees be at the studio to work BOCC meetings after Mitchell’s comments. Foerster was concerned that Mitchell’s relationship with BOCC members was irreparably strained, and therefore the efficiency of HTV would be impaired by the change in Mitchell’s work assignments. This was true even though Mitchell would not be coming in direct contact with BOCC members, because he had important responsibilities in HTV production. Both Foerster and Vawter testified that not only did they not understand the nature of Mitchell’s attempted parody, they were extremely concerned about the effect of Mitchell’s vulgar tirade on HTV’s relationship with the County. HTV is charged with filming many different BOCC-related meetings and activities, and Mitchell’s continued employment after his offensive remarks could potentially destroy the confidence BOCC and the County Administrator had in HTV. Given Mitchell’s responsibilities with regard to filming BOCC meetings, we see no reason to dispute these concerns that led to the County’s decision to terminate Mitchell. Mitchell provided no evidence at trial to demonstrate that the County’s fears were unreasonable.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 806 F. Supp. 2d 1193 - Brown v. Greene County Commission

3. “The First Amendment does not require a public employer to tolerate an embarrassing, vulgar, vituperative, ad hominem attack, even if such an attack touches on a matter of public concern. If the manner and content of an employee’s speech is disrespectful, demeaning, rude, and insulting, and is perceived that way in the workplace, the government employer is within its discretion to take disciplinary action.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 806 F. Supp. 2d 1193 - Brown v. Greene County Commission