Teacher suspended for anti-Obama emails: it's NOT a free speech issue

Predictably, the wingnut commenters are out in force, decrying the suspension of Palm Beach County high school teacher Paula Prudente for sending numerous political emails critical of Barack Obama from her school-provided email account. The wingnut CW seems to be that any teacher who would have, say, criticized Drunky McStagger in an email would have been lauded, not disciplined ... but, needless to say, that's not only overly simplistic, it's just flat-out wrong.

Here's the basic scoop:

Administrators said Prudente defied warnings and repeatedly sent e-mails with "political innuendos" in violation of School Board policy. The e-mails included criticisms of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In an interview, Prudente called the suspension a "wrongful retaliation" for her attempt to expose school district corruption.

Let me throw a little legal knowledge at all you mouth-breathers ranting about freedom of speech and urging Prudente to sue the school district for limiting her First Amendment rights: there's no case. Courts consistently recognize valid limitations to the time, place, and manner of speech, provided such limitations are content-neutral -- that is, they don't favor some content over others. You folks who think emails critical of Republicans would be permitted are, well, just wrong (again).

A government-owned mode of communication for political messages is not a public forum for First Amendment purposes. If the school district has a policy against political email on their system, they have every right to enforce it, whether the employee in question was criticizing Obama or praising him, or anyone else for that matter.

It's quite simple, and Prudente's discipline was well-deserved -- not because she's a wingnut, but because she broke the rules. But, then, I've never really expected right-wingers to care very much about rules ....