Terry Joyner, a white police lieutenant, sued the City of Atlanta, Police Chief George Turner, and Major Van Hobbs after he was denied a promotion to Captain in December 2014 and stripped of his flexible work schedule in October 2015. The schedule change came just one week after Joyner reported Turner and Hobbs to the FBI and Office of Professional Standards for allegedly pressuring an officer to void traffic tickets issued to former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young's grandson.
Circuit Judge Ed Carnes wrote that taking away Joyner's flextime privilege was clearly retaliatory and materially adverse. "Working a flexible schedule was a privilege that the APD extended to all officers who had reached the rank of Lieutenant," Carnes explained. The loss prevented Joyner from working his second security job, reducing his income by two-thirds, and interfered with his legal obligation under a divorce decree to pick up his young children from school. "Any reasonable supervisor would know that flextime was a 'privilege of employment' important enough to Joyner that... taking that privilege away would chill his... expression of speech in the future," the court found.
The district court had granted summary judgment to all defendants on Joyner's retaliation claims and his Title VII racial discrimination claim proceeded to trial, where a jury found against him. Joyner claimed Turner maintained an unofficial policy of replacing outgoing captains with officers of the same race, but the court affirmed the jury verdict after finding insufficient evidence of causation between his 2008 discrimination complaint and the 2014 promotion denial.
The case now returns to the district court on the First Amendment claim against Turner and Hobbs. The ruling could have broader implications for public employee speech protections, particularly regarding workplace benefits that supplement income or affect family obligations. The court's emphasis on the chilling effect of removing employment privileges may strengthen future retaliation claims by government workers.