The extent of First Amendment protections for government employees faced fresh scrutiny from federal appellate judges who gave little indication of how they would rule as they heard the case of an assistant public defender who said she was illegally fired after criticizing her boss on a podcast.
Ruby Green’s lawyer in a Friday oral argument asked the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Miami to overturn a lower court’s decision that found her supervisor didn’t violate her free-speech rights.
Howard Finkelstein, the former boss who was the Broward County, Fla., public defender, is arguing the criticisms …