Section 31-51q

Citation: Section 31-51q
Parent Document: Cotto v. United Technologies Corp., 251 Conn. 1 (1999)
Jurisdiction: Connecticut (state)
Effective Date: 1999-10-12
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/7898264/cotto-v-united-technologies-corp/ ↗

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Furthermore, the broad sweep of the constitutional protections to which § 31-51q refers, and their general natures, similarly suggest that the statute applies only to governmental action. The statute refers to much more than speech by an employee, and includes the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and of the press, and the constitutional rights of peaceable assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. These other expressive constitutional guarantees are normally thought of, even colloquially, only with regard to governmental activity. Although it is possible to conceive of situations in which conduct by a private employer might be seen as interfering with the right to publish a newspaper, it certainly requires some strain on the statutory language to think of factual situations that would fall within that guarantee. Moreover, certain of these other constitutional guarantees are associated only with governmental action, and have no discernible application to workplace activity, namely, the first amendment’s textual prohibition against the establishment of a religion, and the rights, under both the first amendment and § 14, of article first, *29of peaceable assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

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