An Exercise for Teaching the Employment Law Implications of Employee Blogging

• Published in: The Journal of legal studies education 2009-08, Vol.26 (2), p.399-431
• Main Authors: Lee, Konrad S., Thue, Matthew I., Oldham, Jared, Stephenson, Tara N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Collective Bargaining; Compliance (Legal); Computer Mediated Communication; Confidentiality; Dismissal (Personnel); Electronic Publishing; Employer Employee Relationship; Employment; First Amendment; Internet; Laws; Legal Responsibility; Unions; Web Sites
• ISSN: 0896-5811; 1744-1722
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-1722.2009.01061.x

This article provides a tool to help instructors introduce students to the intersection of blogging and employment law. Section II provides source materials on the subject. Specifically, it presents a summary overview of: (1) the development of blogging and other forms of online user generated content; (2) the legality of terminating an at-will employee for maintaining a blog; (3) the legality of terminating an employee for posting critical or confidential information on the Internet in violation of the employee duty of loyalty; and (4) constitutional considerations which limit an employer's ability to prosecute employee-bloggers who blog anonymously. Section III provides a hypothetical case study involving a fictional blogging employee who is terminated for publishing anti-employer information on the Internet. This case study, as well as the blog referenced in the case, is available to instructors and students through an actively maintained blog: http://darnoksucks.blogspot.com. Finally, Section IV contains questions and teaching notes related to the case study. The questions are also linked to the Danoksucks blog for easy student access. The teaching notes are meant for instructors only and are not available online. (Contains 115 footnotes.)