The Supreme Court on Monday declined to jump into the explosive free-speech battle of an Illinois teacher fired after posting fiery Facebook comments during the nationwide unrest that followed George Floyd’s death — leaving intact lower court rulings siding with the school district.
Jeanne Hedgepeth, a longtime teacher at Palatine High School outside Chicago, lost her bid to have the nation’s highest court review whether public employees can be fired for controversial political speech made off the clock and away from school grounds.
Hedgepeth had taught for roughly two decades before the controversy erupted in the summer of 2020, when riots, looting and anti-police protests swept major American cities after Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis.
While vacationing in Florida, Hedgepeth took to Facebook and posted comments that school officials later blasted as inflammatory and racially insensitive.
In one post, she wrote she would need “a gun and training” because “civil war has begun.” She also reshared another post suggesting protesters be dispersed with high-pressure hoses.
That was enough for school officials in Township High School District 211, who branded the posts “disrespectful, demeaning of other viewpoints and racist” before moving to terminate her employment.
Hedgepeth argued the district crossed a dangerous constitutional line by punishing her for expressing political opinions on her personal social media account during her own time.
“In any other context, such blatant viewpoint discrimination by government officials would be a nonstarter,” her attorneys argued in court filings.
“But because Hedgepeth is a public employee, the Seventh Circuit held that the First Amendment does not bar the government from firing her based on the views she expressed in off-the-job speech on topics unrelated to her work.”
But the school district insisted the Facebook posts were hardly an isolated incident. Lawyers for the district told the court Hedgepeth had already developed a troubling history with students in the politically charged years after President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory.
According to court filings, administrators said she struggled with “appropriately moderating her interactions with students” and had already been suspended twice over alleged “profane outbursts.” District officials also pointed to the community backlash. The school system reportedly received 113 complaints over the posts, with several emails carrying multiple signatures as outrage snowballed.
The district dismissed Hedgepeth’s argument as another “cancel culture” rallying cry dressed up as a constitutional crisis. “Petitioner frames this case as presenting broad questions concerning off-campus speech and ‘cancel culture,’” district attorneys wrote.
“In fact, the Seventh Circuit’s fact-specific assessment of the summary-judgment record adheres to this Court’s long-established precedent and has little import beyond Petitioner’s individual case.” The Supreme Court offered no explanation for declining the appeal — standard practice when the justices refuse to hear a case.
