Determining whether an employee's First Amendment free speech interests should prevail over legitimate employer concerns for an efficient workplace is a difficult question that this book attempts to answer. To give public employers and public employees an understanding of the legal framework in which free speech issues are decided is the purpose of this book. The first section traces the development of the public employee free speech right in the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, setting forth the basic analytical framework within which these cases are decided. The second section focuses more closely on the variables within the Supreme Court's analytical framework by examining a number of lower court decisions, paying particular attention to the decisions of the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the North Carolina federal district courts, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. (SI)