The Volokh Conspiracy

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Free Speech

Police Officer's Hanging Up on Caller Isn't a First Amendment Violation

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"[T]he First Amendment does not require government actors to listen to citizens' speech or guarantee the right to communicate one's views to a government audience for any length of time that the speaker desires," and this applies equally "when the audience is a police officer." So holds last week's decision (quite correctly) in Sgaggio v. Diaz, by Chief Judge Philip Brimmer (D. Colo.).