Retired Florida math teacher Thomas Caggiano has successfully appealed a disciplinary decision by the Duval County School Board regarding his First Amendment rights. The 5th District Court of Appeal ruled against the school board’s suspension of Caggiano for three days without pay, due to derogatory comments he made about Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT). In a separate free speech case, Elon Musk’s X Corp. reached an agreement with the state of California regarding Assembly Bill 587, which imposed reporting requirements on large social media companies.
The Florida case centered on Caggiano’s Facebook posts, which included critical reposts about Sanders. The school board contended that the posts were unprofessional and violated district policy. However, the appeals court found that Caggiano’s comments constituted protected speech, made outside of school hours and did not promote violence.
Judge Scott Makar stated, “At best, the reposts demonstrated that Caggiano disliked Senator Sanders (for his use of sexist language) and was amused by sophomoric humor (that in no way promoted violence).”…