Thank You First Amendment

As we know, or hope that most of you know, our beloved First Amendment continues to protect the citizens of the United States. There are constantly new court cases taking places because people are having their First Amendment rights violated.

A couple days ago, on April 26th a town over from the one that I currently live in , Paterson NJ was facing a First Amendment dispute. A police officer was seen and noted for holding a sign that was for a certain mayor. The cops's boss denoted him to patrol officer based on the fact that he was making a political statement by doing this.

Mr. Heffernan (the police officer) sued under the First Amendment that his rights were being violated by his supervisor for doing this. This is a valid First Amendment claim because an individual was having their rights violated by a government agency. However , the ruling in Mr. Heffernan's case was he was not exercising his rights and therefore they could not be violated.

This ruling really surprises me, I thought that this case was a for sure win for Mr. Heffernan. The government was punishing him for holding a sign that showed support for a mayor. In my opinion this is harsh and oppressive behavior and unconditional . Workers should not be afraid to be punished in the workplace because of their political views. The First Amendment is in place to protect citizens from having issues like this .





http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/us/supreme-court-first-amendment-police-officer-demoted.html?