A student-employee at the University of Wisconsin has asked a court
to declare that senior staff violated her constitutional right to
free speech by ordering that a quote be removed from her default
e-mail signature.
The signature of Mary Pichelmann was a quote by US feminist
Gloria Steinem: “The truth shall set you free, but first it will
piss you off.” Pichelmann claims that a senior member of staff
ordered that she remove the quote or else she would face “job
discipline which could result in termination as an employee.”
Pichelmann said that all users of the University e-mail system
are allowed to add signature codicils to their e-mail. The
University argues that the signature was wrongly used in
job-related correspondence. Pichelmann wants the court to give her
the right to resume use of the signature.
