The Right to Remain Silent: Garcetti v. Ceballos and a Public Employee\u27s Refusal to Speak Falsely

Both Bowie and Jackler, when compared with a wide variety of public employee free speech case law, stand out as cases where a public employee is not seeking protection of his right to speak, but rather, is seeking protection of the right not to speak falsely or protection of the right to refrain from speaking at all. This Summary seeks to review the progression of public employee case law up to Garcetti and then discusses Garcetti\u27s effect on subsequent circuit decisions attempting to apply its standards. Next, a review of the ineffectiveness of current whistleblower protection laws suggests that employees without First Amendment protection have little protection at all. Finally, it is suggested that Garcetti did not anticipate its holding to apply to cases where employees were seeking First Amendment protection of the right to refrain from speaking falsely, and thus, purports that the Supreme Court of the United States should revisit Garcetti to determine where cases such as Bowie and Jackler fit within the public employee free speech dialogu