A Jewish lawyer who works for the Cook County Public Defender's office will be allowed to continue her lawsuit against the county office for allegedly violating her First Amendment speech rights for disciplining her for putting up a photo in the office of herself from her time serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, in which she is shown holding a gun in front of the Israeli flag, to express her support for Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks in that nation.
On March 21, U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow rejected the Public Defender's attempt to toss the lawsuit brought by Debra Gassman.
Gassman had sued Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell in his official capacity as head of that office in 2024.
The lawsuit was spurred by actions Gassman claimed the Public Defender's office took against her in 2023 and 2024, amid the roiling debate over the Israeli military response to the Hamas terrorist attacks, in which terrorists from Gaza killed more than 1,200 Israeli civilians in coordinated attacks in Israel.
Gassman serves as an assistant public defender in the Cook County office, and has worked for the office in various roles since 1997.
According to the complaint, Gassman has long displayed a photo of herself in her office, which shows her in civilian clothing, holding a military rifle, while standing in front of the Israeli flag.
According to the complaint, the photo was taken in 2002, when Gassman, who is Jewish, had volunteered to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces.
According to the complaint, the photo "reminds Gassman of her time spent defending Israel and the Jewish people" and "signals that the Jewish people must 'stay strong' when threatened by other nations."
According to the complaint, Gassman had displayed the photo in her office - including in shared office spaces in both Chicago and Skokie - "without incident" since she returned from volunteering for the IDF in 2002, until 2023, after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
At that time, Gassman had decided to place her photo in a shared space on top of employee mailboxes in the Public Defender's Skokie office "for her coworkers to see."
According to court documents, Gassman "felt upset that 'few seemed to care - or even were aware of ' - the attack on Israel" and she wishes to "bring attention to the attacks ... and the need to support the victims."
According to court documents, the photo, which was about 11 inches tall and in a frame, had been positioned to only face employee areas of the office, and could not be seen by members of the public in the office.
According to court documents, the place in which Gassman had placed the photo was one used "regularly" by Public Defender employees in that office for "holiday decorations, photographs, art, and cards."
After she placed the photo in the shared office common space, Gassman was reportedly the target of negative response from some coworkers and supervisors. According to court documents, two of Gassman's superiors, identified as Cook County Deputy Public Defender Parle Roe-Taylor and First Assistant Public Defender Rodney Carr allegedly "told Gassman's supervisors that the photo was 'comparable to a Nazi swastika.'"
According to court documents, Gassman then placed the photo back in her office.
However, according to court documents, Gassman was hit with a written reprimand over the incident, as Sharone Mitchell allegedly claimed the photo's inclusion of a firearm meant the photo "can be perceived as threatening and therefore is inconsistent" with office workplace conduct policies.
Then, a week later, Roe-Taylor allegedly entered Gassman's office and "confiscated the photo" while Gassman was attending to her duties in court.
While the photo was returned, Gassman said she was instructed to no longer display it in her office, as it amounted to displaying a gun in a public place.
Gassman has asserted, however, that such a finding conflicts with past practices in the office, as she noted supervisors have been "permitted to display photographs of guns that did not depict the Israeli flag."
This allegedly has included "signage in the Public Defender's office to celebrate favorable verdicts."
And Gassman said, other employees at the Public Defender's office have been permitted to "possess actual weapons in their offices, such as guns and swords."
Gassman further claimed her constitutional rights have been violated by the Public Defender Office policies which generally forbid her from discussing her case with the media or on social media.
In response, the Public Defender's Office has sought to dismiss the complaint, claiming nothing they allegedly did violated Gassman's rights.
Judge Lefkow, however, disagreed.
She found Gassman may have had constitutional rights to display the photo, even in a shared common space in the Skokie office.
In the ruling, Lefkow said Gassman's display of the photo amounted to protected speech of Gassman's personal opinions on a matter of public concern.
At this point, Lefkow declined to rule on the Public Defender's assertions that Mitchell's interest in running his office and "in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs" should "outweigh" Gassman's constitutional right to express her personal opinions in the office.
Lefkow said that is a question that can only be answered in later proceedings.
So, for now, the judge said Gassman's lawsuit should continue.
The judge, however, dismissed Gassman's claims that the Public Defender's office's media communication policies violated her rights.
Lefkow said Gassman "reads the (policies) too broadly."
"... The Public Relations/Media Policy prevents employees from speaking on behalf of the Public Defender," Lefkow wrote. "It does not preclude speech regarding theeffect of the Public Defender’s policies on Gassman personally."
Gassman has been represented in the case by attorney David J. Fish, of the firm of Fish Potter Bolaños, of Chicago.