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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Finally, the legislative history of § 31-51q is, at best, ambiguous. There is no record of any committee hearings on the bill that eventually became § 31-51q. The debate in the House of Representatives is generally consistent with the view of the statute that I have articulated.9 The debate in the Senate, however, although *38also consistent with that view, does offer some slight support for a broader interpretation of the statute.10 I *39do not read this history, however, to suggest that § 31-51q was intended to apply to expressive conduct by a *40private employee that is not itself “guaranteed by” either the first amendment or article first, but that would be so guaranteed if it were engaged in by a governmental employee. Therefore, I do not regard this ambiguous legislative history as sufficient to overcome the generally understood meaning of the legislative language, the notion that the legislature should not be presumed to be uninformed about the subject matter of its own legislation, the principle that legislation should be interpreted so as to avoid rather than to raise serious constitutional questions, and the drastic implications of the jurisprudential background of the legislation.

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