⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Seventh Circuit hears Matthew Haynam versus the City of Chicago. Haynam was a senior manager at Chicago's Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates alleged police misconduct. He says he reported his agency head's alleged interference with investigations and suppression of an internal audit to outside city oversight bodies, and was fired in retaliation. He sued, claiming that the firing violated his First Amendment free-speech rights. The district court dismissed that federal claim because it treated his reports as part of his job, not speech as a private citizen. His lawyer will argue that reporting his boss to outside oversight bodies was not one of his duties, and that the court drew that conclusion too early, before the case developed beyond the complaint. The city's lawyer will argue that the reports concerned investigations and training he was responsible for supervising, so the dismissal should stand. Listen for whether going outside an agency changes the capacity in which a public employee speaks, and what can be decided from the complaint alone. Recording note: The official recording ends during the judge's administrative closing remarks, after both sides have finished arguing and the court has taken the case under advisement. The recorded fragment is preserved; no missing speech has been reconstructed.

Matthew Haynam v. City of Chicago (No. 26-1368) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, argued November 12, 2026.