Free Speech in the American Workplace: From the Dawn of Workers’ Rights to the Rise of Social Media

This book examines the legal and ethical issues that can result when employees express opinions that conflict with those of their employer. It covers seven areas of employment - corporate; government (local, state, and federal); military; law enforcement; K-12 education; college professors and administrators; and sports - to look at case precedent and interrogate how technology has complicated this area of the law and employee-employer relations. Randy Bobbitt argues that, while free speech in the workplace has always been considered controversial, the phenomena of social media has coincided with a sharp increase in cases over the past decade, as disgruntled employees take to online forums to criticize their employers or express controversial opinions. By exploring these cases in both the private and public sectors, Bobbitt also highlights the difference in legal obligation to the protection of free speech between the two and demonstrates how employers in both sectors deviate from these obligations in certain cases. Scholars of communication, media law, labor law, US policy, history, and the first amendment will find this book of particular interest.

Randy Bobbitt is an independent researcher and holds a PhD in communication law and policy from Bowling Green State University. His previous books include Controversial Books in K-12 Classrooms and Libraries: Challenged, Censored, and Banned (2019); Free Speech on America’s K-12 and College Campuses: Legal Cases from Barnette to Blaine (2016); Us against Them: The Political Culture of Talk Radio (2010); and Lottery Wars: Case Studies in Bible Belt Politics, 1986-2005 (2007), all published by Lexington Books.