From Mumma v. Pathway Vet Alliance, LLC, decided Wednesday by Magistrate Judge Thomas Farrish (D. Conn.); for more on the employee free speech protection statutes such as the one in this case, see this article and this one:
On the evening of June 9, 2020, Ms. Mumma posted a meme to her personal Facebook page. Under a banner reading "No Wonder Liberals Are So Confused," the meme contained photos of eight different political and cultural figures with a single word under each. For example, a picture of former NAACP Spokane chapter president Rachel Dolezal was captioned "Black;" a picture of former Vice President Al Gore was captioned "scientist;" and a picture of former President Bill Clinton was captioned "husband." Most relevant to this case, a photo of Senator Elizabeth Warren was accompanied by the word "Indian," and a photo of Caitlyn Jenner was captioned "woman." The meme is reproduced here:
Dr. Moore [a manager at Pathway] saw the meme on either June 9 or June 10. She testified that when she first saw it, she "had some concerns because [she] could see how people would find it offensive." She was particularly concerned about the Jenner and Warren panels, because she regarded them as "potentially very offensive to protected classes of people." With respect to the Warren panel, Dr. Moore observed that the use of the term "Indian" in place of "Native American" "can be taken offensively," but "[i]t was more that the … goal of this meme was to question how people identify themselves." And with respect to the Jenner panel, Dr. Moore "personally [found] it offensive to question how a transgender person chooses to identify themselves." …
