Boulton v. Swanson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “To presume that all matters which transpire within a government office are of public concern would mean that virtually every remark-and certainly every criticism directed at a public official-would plant the seed of a constitutional case. While as a matter of good judgment, public officials should be receptive to constructive criticism offered by their employees, the First Amendment does not require a public office to be run as a roundtable for employee complaints over internal office affairs.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Albert DiBrito v. City of St. Joseph · Dibrito v. City of St. Joseph

2. “an individual's personal motives for speaking may dispositively determine whether that individual's speech addresses a matter of public concern.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Oakes v. Weaver · Dibrito v. City of St. Joseph

3. “The first requires determining whether the employee spoke as a citizen on a matter of public concern. If the answer is no, the employee has no First Amendment cause of action based on his or her employer’s reaction to the speech. If the answer is yes, then the possibility of a First Amendment claim arises. The question becomes whether the relevant government entity had an adequate justification for treating the employee differently from any other member of the general public.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Jonah Holbrook v. Stephanie Dumas