{"id":455043,"date":"2026-09-06T02:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T02:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455043\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T02:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T02:44:11","slug":"grant-napear-may-take-firing-case-to-u-s-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455043\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant Napear may take firing case to U.S. Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

An attorney representing former Sacramento sports talk radio host Grant Napear said he might take his free-speech fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court ruled against him.<\/p>\n

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined Thursday that Bonneville International Corp., the parent company for KHTK-AM Sactown Sports 1140, was within its rights to fire Napear after his \u201cAll Lives Matter\u201d tweet created a social media firestorm.<\/p>\n

Napear, who hosted an afternoon radio show in addition to his role as a play-by-play announcer on Sacramento Kings television broadcasts, sent the tweet in response to a question from former Kings star DeMarcus Cousins. In May 2020, Cousins asked Napear what he thought about the Black Lives Matter movement amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd.<\/p>\n

Napear replied, in part, \u201cALL LIVES MATTER … EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!\u201d His response led to allegations of racial insensitivity.<\/p>\n

Napear was fired by Sactown Sports 1140 and resigned from his position with the Kings. Napear sued Bonneville, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, claiming the Salt Lake City-based broadcaster violated his right to religious freedom and California labor laws protecting political activity by employees.<\/p>\n

\"Grant Grant Napear raises a fist Wednesday, April 17, 2013, as he thanks fans after the Sacramento Kings\u2019 112-108 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento after the team\u2019s final game of the season. With the franchise considering a move, many in attendance believed that it could be the Kings\u2019 final game in Sacramento. Hector Amezcua Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n

A federal court judge in Sacramento dismissed Napear\u2019s case, ruling it would be unconstitutional to apply California labor laws protecting the political rights of employees to the company\u2019s action in firing Napear.<\/p>\n

Circuit Judges Bridget S. Bade, Danielle J. Forrest, and Lawrence VanDyke upheld that decision, ruling: \u201cNapear was a public figure in his role as a radio-show host with Bonneville, and his employment contract incorporated a Social Media Policy that required him to maintain \u2018a high standard of care and level of responsibility\u2019 in his \u2018personal use of social media\u2019 since \u2018the results of such use are inseparably connected with (Bonneville)\u2019s public image and reputation.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBonneville further \u2018reserved the right to set limits on (public-figure) employees\u2019 (social-media) use\u2019 and \u2018claimed ownership in the results of any (personal social-media) use\u2019 by public-figure employees that involved \u2018in any way … such celebrity persona.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Social Media Policy also provided that any conduct on social media that \u2018adversely affected … (Bonneville)\u2019s legitimate business interests may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Ruggles, the lawyer representing Napear, told The Sacramento Bee he is contemplating his next steps in the appeals process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were disappointed by the 9th Circuits ruling, especially because they decided the case based upon a disputed issue \u2013 whether Grant\u2019s use of his Twitter account was part of his \u2018official capacity\u2019 as a radio host,\u201d Ruggles said. \u201cWe contend it absolutely was not, and that the issue should have been decided by a jury rather than the court. Nevertheless, we are considering filing a request for rehearing en banc, and a petition for review to the United States Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
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Jason Anderson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Jason Anderson has been the Sacramento Kings beat writer for The Sacramento Bee since 2018. He is a Sacramento native who is proud to provide coverage that is as passionate and dedicated as the loyal Kings fan base.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attorney representing former Sacramento sports talk radio host Grant Napear said he might take his free-speech fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-455043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}