If you go on the Internet and write something controversial, whether it be about the President, the immigration debate, the war or whatever, you may find yourself in trouble with your boss. Should your boss find your Internet activities to be potentially offensive or alienating to clients or damaging to the company, you could be disciplined or fired. The esteemed Volokh Conspiracy (http://www.volokh.com/) posted an article about how California, South Carolina and Louisiana are protecting bloggers and Internet chatters from reprisal by their employers.



The pertinent legislation is as follows (courtesy of Volokh):





Cal. Labor Code § 1101: No employer shall make, adopt, or enforce any rule, regulation, or policy: (a) Forbidding or preventing employees from engaging or participating in politics or from becoming candidates for public office. (b) Controlling or directing, or tending to control or direct the political activities.



Cal. Labor Code § 1102: No employer shall ... attempt to coerce or influence his employees through or by means of threat of discharge ... to adopt or follow or refrain from adopting or following any particular course or line of political action or political activity.



La. Rev. Stat. § 23:961: [N]o employer having regularly in his employ twenty or more employees shall make … or enforce any ... policy ... preventing any of his employees from ... participating in politics, or from becoming a candidate for public office … [nor] adopt or enforce any ... policy which will ... tend to control or direct the political activities or affiliations of his employees, nor ... attempt to coerce or influence any of his employees by means of threats of ... loss of employment in case such employees should support or become affiliated with any particular political faction or organization, or participate in political activities of any nature or character....



S.C. Code Ann. § 16-17-560: Whoever shall … [discharge from employment] any citizen because of political opinions or the exercise of political rights and privileges guaranteed to every citizen of the United States by the Constitution … thereof ... shall be guilty of a misdemeanor [and subject to civil liability]….



This is different from saying something libelous online. Obviously if you say your boss engages in sexual congress with ostriches it’s different than if you said President Bush engages in sexual congress with ostriches. If you don’t live in California, South Carolina or Louisiana, you might land in trouble for writing things your boss doesn’t agree with on the Internet. Of course, even if you do live in those states, you could still wind up in hot water. Volokh’s assessment points out that each individual jurisdiction determines what constitutes “political action” and that anything you say that is directly damaging to the company can still get you canned. This is important for Judged members. While we’re protecting your identity here, if you go elsewhere online and speak freely, you could be subject to backlash if you run afoul of your employers.



In terms of speaking out about the President, recent trends have shown that the latitude granted in criticizing the Executive Branch is inversely proportional to his approval ratings. When his approval ratings were up, you could get kicked out of the mall for wearing an anti-Bush shirt. Now that his ratings have dipped, they’ve finally let the Dixie Chicks out of Guantanamo Bay.