Justices to Rehear Speech Case From October

From the Washington Post:

The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will have to rehear a free-speech case that was argued before the justices in October, the first sign of an alteration in its normal flow of business because of the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
In a one-sentence order, the court said that it will restore Garcetti v. Ceballos , No. 04-473, to its calendar for reargument. The court did not say why. Historically, however, one reason for such a relatively unusual move has been that the court's preliminary vote in a case was 5 to 4 and one of the justices left the court before a result could be announced, leaving a 4 to 4 tie...Garcetti v. Ceballos centers on the free-speech rights of government employees. Richard Ceballos, a deputy prosecutor in Los Angeles, wrote a memo to his superiors complaining that a police officer may have lied to obtain a search warrant in a murder case. Ceballos recommended that the case be dismissed -- a suggestion his boss rejected.
Ceballos was later denied a promotion and sued then-Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, alleging that he had been punished for exercising his constitutional right to free speech. Garcetti objected, saying that public employees are not entitled to First Amendment protection for comments they make in the course of performing their jobs.

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--Tom Hayes