Whether a public employee's political debate on an issue of national importance may be silenced based solely on the speaker's use of an offensive word

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Whether, contrary to Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378 (1987), a public employee’s political debate on an issue of national importance may be silenced and accorded diminished constitutional protection based solely on the speaker’s use of an offensive word. 2. Whether the Sixth Circuit erred in ruling, in conflict with other circuits, that the private exercise of free speech by a public employee on a matter of public concern may be curtailed based on the government’s purely speculative concerns of public perception. 3. Whether the effect of the Sixth Circuit’s holding is to render the Pickering balancing test meaningless by constitutionalizing a “heckler’s veto” for controversial expressions.