The New Jersey Appellate Division framed the question presented as “whether the First Amendment or Article I, Paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution prevents a private employer from terminating one of its at-will employees for posting racially insensitive comments about the Black Lives Matter movement on her personal Facebook account.” The plaintiff had a corporate position with the defendant company and her Facebook page reflected as much. She posted on Facebook that Black Lives Matter is “racist,” “causes segregation,” and that Black citizens were “killing themselves.” She was an at-will employee and was fired after her employer saw the posts. The Appellate Division agreed with the trial court that the First Amendment and Article I, Paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution did not bar a private employer from terminating an at-will employee. One might argue that the plaintiff is killing herself with asinine social media posts and segregating herself from gainful employment with such idiotic comments.
