Cite as: 511 U. S. 661 (1994)
Stevens, J., dissenting
tive limits on public employees' rights of expression. See generally Connick v. Myers, 461 U. S. 138 (1983); Pickering v. Board of Ed. of Township High School Dist. 205, Will Cty., 391 U. S. 563 (1968). Efficiency does not demand an additional layer of deference to employers' "reasonable" factual errors. Today's ruling will surely deter speech that would be fully protected under Pickering and Connick.
The plurality correctly points out that we have never decided whether the governing version of the facts in public employment free speech cases is "what the government employer thought was said, or . . . what the trier of fact ultimately determines to have been said." Ante, at 664.4 To
4 Justice Scalia would recharacterize employees' right to free speech as a more modest protection against "retaliatory" discharges, a protection that would not extend to those terminated for speech that was fully protected but incorrectly reported. The only support he cites for this restrictive theory is that three of our prior public employment speech opinions have used the word "retaliation." See ante, at 688-689 (opinion concurring in judgment) (citing Connick v. Myers, 461 U. S. 138, 149 (1983); Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U. S. 593, 598 (1972); Pickering v. Board of Ed. of Township High School Dist. 205, Will Cty., 391 U. S. 563, 572 (1968)). Our use of that word in the cases Justice Scalia cites, however, does not resolve the present question, since none of those decisions involved any factual dispute over the content of employee speech. More importantly, other passages from two of those opinions support the view that the causal connection between the employee's speech and her discharge is all the "retaliation" that must be shown. See Perry, 408 U. S., at 598 (nonrenewal of a teacher's contract "may not be predicated on his exercise of First and Fourteenth Amendment rights"); ibid. ("[A] teacher's public criticism of his superiors on matters of public concern may be constitutionally protected and may, therefore, be an impermissible basis for termination of his employment"); Pickering, 391 U. S., at 574 ("In sum, . . . a teacher's exercise of his right to speak on issues of public importance may not furnish the basis for his dismissal from public employment"). Precedent certainly does not command Justice Scalia's approach, and nothing in the First Amendment recommends a rule that makes ignorance or mistake a complete defense for a discharge based on fully protected speech. Justice O'Connor appropriately rejects that position, at least for those instances in which the employer unreasonably believes an incorrect report
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