Overview

• On August 13, a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit unanimously held that Steven Melton’s lawsuit over his firing for reposting an anti-abortion image on his personal Facebook page can move forward.
• The court found no evidence that Melton’s off-duty post disrupted Forrest City Fire Department operations, noting no interrupted training, no impeded calls and no reports of coworker complaints.
• Judges David Stras, Lavenski Smith and Ralph Erickson instructed that factual disputes about workplace impact must be resolved by a jury under the Pickering v. Board of Education framework.
• The panel rejected the city officials’ qualified immunity defense, concluding that the law was clearly established that a lack of operational disruption cannot justify summary dismissal of a public-employee free-speech claim.
• Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Melton, issued a press release praising the decision as a win against allowing external complaints to override employee speech rights.