Court affirms firing of administrator for writing op-ed piece

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal of a former administrator at the University of Toledo, finding that her writing of an op-ed piece implying gay rights and civil rights were not the same, was not protected free speech. The administrator argued that her termination for the April 2008 op-ed article in the Toledo Free Press was a violation of her free-speech rights because she wrote it as a private citizen, not on behalf of the university, her employer. The Sixth Circuit found that the administrator's speech was not protected and that, because her public comments contradicted the policies of the university that she was, pursuant to her job description, required to create and enforce, her termination was proper.