Wackett v. City of Beaver Dam, Wis., 642 F.3d 578

Wackett started in Beaver Dam's Public Works in 1972 and became Public Works Supervisor in 1990, overseeing specifications for a front-end loader.
In Feb. 2003, at a Board meeting, Wackett and Gall recommended Deere; the Board instead recommended Caterpillar at a higher cost.
The Board held Feb. 24, 2003 meeting and reaffirmed the Caterpillar resolution by 4-1 vote.
Wackett publicly criticized the Caterpillar decision and the perceived influence of the Caterpillar salesman and related trip, and urged citizens to comment to the Council.
Schmidt wrote a letter criticizing the Caterpillar purchase, which was published; later, the Council rejected the Caterpillar recommendation and then approved Deere.
Wackett remained Acting Director through retirement; he sued for First Amendment retaliation and for state-law claims; the district court granted summary judgment on the federal claim and declined to exercise jurisdiction over state claims.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Wackett's speech was protected by the First Amendment.	Wackett spoke as a private citizen about public matters.	Speech was made in official duties, not as a citizen.	Speech was made in official capacity; not protected under Garcetti.
Whether defendants knew of Wackett's protected speech and could retaliate.	Defendants knew of his protected statements and acted in retaliation.	No evidence defendants knew of outside-speech; actions not tied to protected speech.	No knowledge of protected speech; no causation; summary judgment affirmed.

Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (U.S. 2006) (speech pursuant to official duties not protected)
Salas v. Wis. Dept. of Corr., 493 F.3d 913 (7th Cir. 2007) (no evidence of knowledge of speech defeats retaliation claim)
Gross v. Town of Cicero, 619 F.3d 697 (7th Cir. 2010) (summary-judgment standard and retaliation framework)