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.