Demoted Public Health Doctor Loses Speech Suit Against Hospital

The former obstetrics and gynecology department chair at a Minneapolis-based public health facility failed to show that her First Amendment rights were violated after being demoted over social media posts that caused friction at the hospital, a federal court said.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ “interest, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the critical public services it performs as a safety net hospital outweighed Dr. [Tara] Gustilo’s interests, as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern,” said Senior Judge Susan Richard Nelson Thursday in an opinion for the US District Court for the District ...