Overview
- The Supreme Court turned down Kari MacRae’s petition to overturn lower court decisions that upheld her 2021 firing over TikTok posts.
- A federal judge and the 1st U.S. Circuit applied a 1968 balancing test weighing speech against workplace disruption and granted Hanover Public Schools officials qualified immunity.
- School officials pointed to pre-employment TikTok posts they characterized as homophobic, transphobic and racist in justifying her termination.
- Justice Clarence Thomas issued a seven-page concurrence criticizing reliance on disruption arguments and foreshadowing future review of public employee speech cases.
- MacRae, who taught at Hanover Public Schools for one month, is now running as a Republican candidate for the Massachusetts state Senate.