4 ms·

> Government agencies don't have "free speech". My understanding is that, in many ways, government agencies are more constitutionally protected speech-wise tha

by wk_end 10mo ago

> Government agencies don't have "free speech". My understanding is that, in many ways, government agencies are more constitutionally protected speech-wise than private entities, precisely because any hierarchical attempt to punish them for their speech would be coming from the government rather than private entities. IANAL (or even American) though so grain of salt. In any case, a lot of the right-wing hypocrisy around free speech that was being called out by OP didn't have much to do with constitutionally protected freedom of speech either - it was complaining about things like private companies (e.g. Twitter) shadowbanning people.

crooked-v 10mo ago
In theory, sure. In practice the Supreme Court's rulings mean President can now just fire anyone he wants whenever for any reason.
- wk_end 10mo ago
  Any discussion about the constitution and jurisprudence and rights should probably be assumed to be referring to the Before Times, when those things still mattered. Sigh.
torstenvl 10mo ago
This is incorrect. Government agencies have exactly zero free speech rights. They are part of the Executive Branch and as such are instrumentalities of the President. Full stop. "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." U.S. Const., Art. II, Sec. 1, cl. 1. (There are so-called independent agencies, but the constitutionality of true independence is in question in the Trump v. Slaughter case. You can read about it at https://www.oyez.org/cases/2025/25-332 https://www.oyez.org/cases/2025/25-332 or https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/court-seems-likely-to-side-with-trump-on-presidents-power-to-fire-ftc-commissioner/ https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/court-seems-likely-to-sid... or https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/17/trump-v-slaughter-was-trump-v-united-states-redux/ https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/17/trump-v-slaughter-was-t... or https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/09/some-answers-to-justice-barretts-questions-in-trump-v-slaughter/ https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/09/some-answers-to-justice... )
tbrownaw 10mo ago
> My understanding is that, in many ways, government agencies are more constitutionally protected speech-wise than private entities That's government employees. If an employee of a normal company goes to a bar after work and trash-talks their boss, they can get fired for it. If an employee of the government does the same, they (probably) can't. This only covers speech that's not the of the job, and only things that are of "public concern" whatever that means.

by wk_end 10mo ago

crooked-v 10mo ago

In theory, sure. In practice the Supreme Court's rulings mean President can now just fire anyone he wants whenever for any reason.

wk_end 10mo ago
Any discussion about the constitution and jurisprudence and rights should probably be assumed to be referring to the Before Times, when those things still mattered. Sigh.

torstenvl 10mo ago

This is incorrect. Government agencies have exactly zero free speech rights. They are part of the Executive Branch and as such are instrumentalities of the President. Full stop. "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." U.S. Const., Art. II, Sec. 1, cl. 1. (There are so-called independent agencies, but the constitutionality of true independence is in question in the Trump v. Slaughter case. You can read about it at https://www.oyez.org/cases/2025/25-332 https://www.oyez.org/cases/2025/25-332 or https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/court-seems-likely-to-side-with-trump-on-presidents-power-to-fire-ftc-commissioner/ https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/court-seems-likely-to-sid... or https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/17/trump-v-slaughter-was-trump-v-united-states-redux/ https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/17/trump-v-slaughter-was-t... or https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/09/some-answers-to-justice-barretts-questions-in-trump-v-slaughter/ https://reason.com/volokh/2025/12/09/some-answers-to-justice... )

tbrownaw 10mo ago

> My understanding is that, in many ways, government agencies are more constitutionally protected speech-wise than private entities That's government employees. If an employee of a normal company goes to a bar after work and trash-talks their boss, they can get fired for it. If an employee of the government does the same, they (probably) can't. This only covers speech that's not the of the job, and only things that are of "public concern" whatever that means.