Private businesses can fire you for petitioning the government, Tennessee Supreme Court rules

Yahoo

31-03-2025

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a private employer may fire an employee for exercising their right to petition the government.
Citizens are protected from such government actions by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. But justices said private employers are not subject to the same restraints under state law.
The ruling comes out of a case that started in 2021, after Hamilton County resident Heather Smith was fired from her job at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Smith was accused of 'violating company policy' after she emailed her state House representative in the Tennessee legislature, detailing her opposition to her employer's vaccine mandate.
More: Can you be fired in Tennessee for petitioning your state lawmaker? Appeals court weighs in
Her email, which Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, read aloud during a special session at the Tennessee General Assembly, asked for 'legislative protection for … individual liberties and rights relating to vaccine mandates.'
Smith filed a lawsuit against BlueCross in December 2021, alleging that the company violated Tennessee law by firing her for exercising her 'right to petition' the government — a right granted within the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and under the Tennessee Constitution.
The Hamilton County trial court dismissed her lawsuit, but the state Court of Appeals reversed the decision. The Tennessee Supreme Court then granted BlueCross permission to appeal, where it ruled against Smith.
There are very limited circumstances, the court explained, where employers may violate Tennessee law by firing an employee for exercising a constitutional right. This is called 'retaliatory discharge.'
However, the court found that employees cannot claim a 'retaliatory discharge' against a private employer for violating their right to petition, as the right to petition is only enforceable against the government.
'For hundreds of years, the constitutional right to petition has been considered a bulwark against government oppression, not a constraint on private parties,' said Chief Justice Holly Kirby, who wrote the ruling. "As outlined above, the majority of states that have considered whether their constitutional right to petition is enforceable against private entities have concluded that it is not.'
Justice Sarah Campbell concurred with the decision, but wrote a separate opinion, arguing that the legislature is better suited than the Court to create public-policy exceptions to this situation.
'There are undoubtedly situations in which the termination of an employee would violate public policy,' she wrote. 'But courts are not well-equipped to determine which public policies are sufficiently clear and important to warrant the strong remedy of a retaliatory discharge claim.'
The USA TODAY Network - Tennessee's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Supreme Court: Companies can fire you for petitioning gov't