Rankin v. McPherson

Rankin v. McPherson
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 23, 1987 Decided June 24, 1987
Full case name	Walter Rankin, et al. v. Ardith McPherson
Citations	483 U.S. 378 (more) 107 S.Ct. 2891; 97 L. Ed. 2d 315; 1987 U.S. LEXIS 2875; 55 U.S.L.W. 5019; 2 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 257
Case history
Prior	Summary judgment for respondent granted, Civ. Action No. H-81-1442 (S.D. Tex. 1983); vacated and remanded, 736 F.2d 175 (5th Cir. 1984); judgement confirmed from the bench; reversed, 786 F.2d 1233 (5th Cir. 1986); cert. granted, 479 U.S. 913 (1986).
Holding
Rankin's interest in discharging McPherson was outweighed by her rights under the First Amendment. The Court held that McPherson's statement, when considered in context, "plainly dealt with a matter of public concern."
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · John P. Stevens Sandra Day O'Connor · Antonin Scalia
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Brennan, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens
Concurrence	Powell
Dissent	Scalia, joined by Rehnquist, White, O'Connor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378 (1987), is a major decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the First Amendment, specifically whether the protection of the First Amendment extends to government employees who make extremely critical remarks about the President. The Court ruled that, while direct threats on the President's life would not be protected speech, a comment — even an unpopular or seemingly extreme one — made on a matter of public interest and spoken by a government employee with no policymaking function and a job with little public interaction, would be protected.^[1]