Joan Uhl v. Lake Havasu City

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiff-Appellant Joan Uhl appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Defendants-Appellees Lake Hava-su City (“the City”), Maureen George, and Dennis Vaughan (collectively “LHC”) on Uhl’s First Amendment retaliation claim. We reverse and remand.

1. LHC first urges that the district court’s grant of summary judgment be upheld because “[Uhl] did not engage in protected free speech.” Whether speech is protected by the First Amendment depends on (1) whether the speech addresses a matter of public concern and (2) whether the speech was made outside of an employee’s job duties. See Freitag v. Ayers, 468 F.3d 528, 543-46 (9th Cir.2006). We consider only the first of these two factors as it was the only one advanced by LHC at summary judgment.

Uhl “bear[s] the burden of showing that [her] speech addressed an issue of public concern, based on the content, form, and context of a given statement, as revealed by the whole record.” Desrochers v. City of San Bernardino, 572 F.3d 703, 709 (9th Cir.2009) (internal citations, quotation marks, and alterations omitted). The content of Uhl’s speech — potential misuse of public funds — is a matter of public concern. See…