Law360, New York (June 30, 2015, 12:15 PM EDT) -- Application of the standard governing when the First Amendment protects public employee speech from retaliation is currently out of sync. In Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court held that only "citizen speech" by public employees is protected free speech.[1] In contrast, "employee speech" is not: "When public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline."[2] Left unrefined were the contours of what constitutes public employees' "official duties" for First Amendment purposes.[3] This proved problematic since interpreted literally, as some of the lower courts did,[4] any speech concerning public employees' work could be considered expressions made "pursuant to their official duties[.]"...