The city of Boston has officially ordered its public employees not to “denigrate or disparage” the town’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, the Boston Globe reports.
The Globe writes that it has gotten its hands on a formal agreement between Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh and the U.S. Olympic Committee which bans employees of the city from writing or speaking any statements critical of the city’s bid for the Olympic Games.
Per the Boston Globe:
The “joinder agreement” forbids the city of Boston and its employees from making any written or oral statements that “reflect unfavorably upon, denigrate or disparage, or are detrimental to the reputation” of the International Olympic Committee, the USOC, or the Olympic Games.
The USOC officially selected Boston a few weeks ago to be the United States’ bid for the 2024 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will select the host city for the Games in 2017 from a pool of international bids.
While I’m not a lawyer, and certainly not a constitutional law expert, I believe the courts have ruled fairly clearly that government workers can not be fired/punished for expressing their first amendment right as a citizen. The last three works are the key here though. if you work for the City of Boston and want to criticize the bid, do so on your own time, not in the capacity of your job.
Makes you wonder what the IOC is asking for, or how much, from the bidders.
Really? Well, I guess they can go back to complaining about the Big Dig some more. This seems very silly.