Dive Brief:
- Writing in Slate, Frank D. LoMonte argues that the Kansas Board of Regents policy allowing universities to fire employees over their tweets may not be legal.
- LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, says that the rule oversimplifies interpretations of the First Amendment rights of employees, something that's particularly alarming in an academic setting.
- One big problem LoMonte outlines: The policy restricts speech "in furtherance of" official duties, but employees can't be sure of the boundaries between that speech and personal speech.
Dive Insight:
While the policy is being reviewed, it is still in place. The policy has its roots in a September incident in which a journalism professor made an anti-NRA tweet after the Navy Yard shootings in Washington, D.C.
