July 16, 2026
The Seventh Circuit declined Thursday to revive a fired Chicago firefighter's suit claiming his free speech rights were violated when he was terminated over racially offensive Facebook posts, agreeing with the city that the racist nature of the posts undermined trust in public safety services.
September 18, 2025
A Seventh Circuit judge on Thursday said an attorney for a former Chicago firefighter seeking to revive a suit claiming he was unlawfully fired for a series of memes and other statements posted on Facebook seemed to be making a "hyperbolic" argument that public employers cannot regulate speech outside the workplace.