The claim requires protected activity, adverse action that would chill a person of ordinary firmness, and a causal connection. Public employee speech requires the Pickering and Garcetti analysis.
Probable cause defeats most retaliatory arrest claims.
Alternative Names:
First Amendment Retaliation Claim|Retaliatory Action Claim
Why it Matters?
Garcetti forecloses public employee claims where the speech was made pursuant to official duties, which is a threshold defense resolving many employment-adjacent claims before the Pickering balancing. For retaliatory arrest, Nieves establishes that probable cause generally defeats the claim subject to a narrow exception where similarly situated individuals were not arrested. Both doctrines dispose of claims without reaching causation.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What does Garcetti foreclose?
Does probable cause defeat retaliatory arrest claims?
