Articles Archive

By Bob Gorsky
Reprinted from “The Shield”, the official publication of the
Dallas Police Association
January 2004

SUPREME COURT RULINGS HELP EMPLOYERS, POLICE OFFICERS

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that a company did not have to rehire a former employee, a recovering drug addict, who had been terminated for violating workplace rules. The 25 year employee of Hughes Missile Systems, a division of the Raytheon Company, had tested positive for drugs and was fired in 1991. After undergoing treatment he reapplied but was denied employment. After a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled that the company’s failure to rehire him violated the 1998 Americans With Disabilities Act, the Supreme Court ruled that the company’s policy of not rehiring a workplace rules violator was nondiscriminatory. While the decision was a victory for employers, the case did not go as far as the business community would like in limiting the protection to those with disabilities as a result of alcohol or drug abuse. Additionally since the court was critical of the analysis used by the appeals court, it sent the case back to the appeals court for another opinion consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
In another case the Supreme Court ruled that a delay of just 15 or 20 seconds between knocking and entering with a search warrant was not unreasonable. The court ruled that after 15 or 20 seconds and no response, police could suspect that drugs or paraphernalia would be gone if the entry was delayed.

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PARAMETER REPORTS.....

As you may or may not be aware, after the new payroll system went into effect in the summer of 2002, the quarterly parameter reports mandated by a DPA lawsuit several years ago stopped coming. After haggling with the city attorney’s office, payroll and the like, the reports have resumed. Now your mission is to figure out if the numbers are correct!

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Bob Gorsky is a partner at the Dallas lawfirm of Lyon, Gorsky, Haring & Gilbert, L.L.P., 2501 Cedar Springs, Suite 750, Dallas, Texas 75201; (214) 965-0090 or e-mail Bob at: bgorsky@swbell.net.