In Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School District et al., 1978, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of a public school teacher who was dismissed for privately criticizing her employer's racially discriminatory practices. The court held that the First Amendment protects not only collective action but also private expressions of opinion by public employees on matters of public concern. This case involved Bessie Givhan, an English teacher at a Mississippi high school who had been fired after she complained to her principal about policies and practices she believed were racist. She sued the school district claiming violation of her First Amendment rights and won in federal district court; however, this decision was reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court which stated that such protections applied only to "public" complaints or criticisms. The Supreme Court disagreed with this interpretation and unanimously overturned it stating that no law suggests constitutional protection is lessened because speech occurs privately rather than publicly.

In the dissenting opinion for GIVHAN v. WESTERN LINE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT, Justice Rehnquist argued that the majority's decision was based on a misinterpretation of Pickering v. Board of Education and its application to private versus public expressions by government employees. He contended that while public criticism is protected under First Amendment rights, this protection does not extend to private complaints or criticisms made directly to superiors within an organization. In his view, such internal communications are part of an employee's job performance and can be subject to disciplinary action without infringing upon their constitutional rights. Therefore, he disagreed with the majority’s ruling in favor of Givhan who had been dismissed from her teaching position after privately expressing racial discrimination concerns to her principal.