Posted on 02/28/2009 12:37:49 PM PST by stan_sipple
The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling affirming the firing of a State Patrol trooper with ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
Justice John Gerrard wrote in the majority opinion released Friday that Robert Henderson voluntarily associated with an organization that uses violence and terror to oppose the state’s founding principles of equality and tolerance.
Henderson’s attorney, Vincent Valentino of Lincoln, said the high court erred in failing to recognize that his client’s association with a racist group never affected his job performance. Valentino said it’s possible he’ll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Henderson, a trooper for 18 years, was dismissed in 2006 after the patrol discovered he had joined the Knights Party — which has described itself as the most active Klan organization in the United States — in June 2004.
An arbitrator said Henderson was wrongly fired, but Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront overturned that decision.
Gerrard wrote that it is not a court’s role, generally, to set aside an arbitrator’s decision. But it is permissible for a court to “refuse to enforce an arbitration award that is contrary to a public policy that is explicit, well defined, and dominant.”
Justice Kenneth Stephan wrote in his dissent that the courts overstepped their bounds by overturning an arbitrator’s decision when there was no clear violation of public policy. Stephan supported the arbitrator’s finding that Henderson had kept his beliefs well hidden while on the job and that there was no evidence that those beliefs interfered with his impartial enforcement of the law.
Gerrard noted that the state’s admission to the Union in 1867 was dependent on a “fundamental public policy” that Nebraska would adhere to the principle that “laws should be enforced without regard to race.”
With regard to Henderson, Gerrard wrote, “It is beyond dispute that he willingly joined the Knights Party, knowing that he was effectively joining the Ku Klux Klan. In joining, he endorsed a point of view that is completely antithetical to the principles of Nebraska law that he was bound by oath to enforce.”
Gerrard wrote that to associate with the KKK is to associate with a legacy of hatred, bigotry, violence and terror.
“One cannot simultaneously wear the badge of the Nebraska State Patrol and the robe of a Klansman without degrading what that badge represents when worn by any officer.”
Henderson’s continued employment would compromise the public’s confidence in law enforcement in a state that outlaws racial profiling, Gerrard wrote.
“It is abhorrent and cannot be tolerated,” Gerrard wrote.
Henderson told an investigator that he joined the Knights Party to vent his frustrations about his separation with his wife, who left him for a Hispanic man.
Henderson posted four messages to the Knights’ Web site, according to the investigator’s report.
Arbitrator Paul Caffera later overturned Henderson’s firing. He said Henderson was entitled to his First Amendment rights of free speech and that the state violated the state troopers’ contract, in part when it fired Henderson “because of his association with the Knights Party ... and the Ku Klux Klan.”
Caffera ordered the patrol to reinstate Henderson within 60 days and pay him his back wages.
But the state appealed that decision and won in Lancaster County District Court, where a judge ruled Henderson violated the state’s public policy against discrimination.
Valentino said Henderson now works part-time for private security firms.
Well one might wonder about a President who has ties to Bill Ayers an unrepentant terrorist.
Too bad Sen. Robert C Byrd can’t be fired for his ties to the Ku Klux Klan instead of being re-elected every 4 years and lauded by the RAT party & the congressional black caucus as being the elder statesman.
Oh and lets not forget Senator Robert Byrd. Maybe the trooper should run for congress or better yet president.
I'm guessing this little "precedence" can be used to remove anyone who is conservative and religious from the ranks...
doesnt count, there was an Omaha Police Officer connected to the black panthers nothing happened to him
What about the black KKK, the NAACP?
What about Obama sitting in a church of hate for 20 years?
Personally, I wouldn’t touch the Klan with a ten foot pole.
But how long has it been since the Klan committed any acts of violence? And how does that compare, for example, with Bill Ayres?
Or what about Obama’s support for Railla Odinga, who was responsible for burning churches and murdering almost a thousand Christian women and children JUST LAST YEAR? And Obama gave him a million dollars to help finance his thugs.
Does this mean cops can be fired for being members of the religion of terror?
We will all be shooting at each other, and the Nebraska State Patrol troopers will be home guarding their own families. ;)
So does this mean that a state trooper can be fired if he/she is a member of a Pro-Life group? According to the justices warped sense of judgment, I could easily see that happening.
Ya think he’s have been fired for belonging to a black racist or black supreme group?
“with an organization that uses violence and terror to oppose the state’s founding principles of equality and tolerance.”
Other issues aside, is this a true statement now?
That being said, I do believe that policing is also incompatible with other, non-white organizations that promote bigotry and hatred such as the Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, etc., and membership in these groups should also be a disqualifier.
Isn't that the NAALCP.
Yes, I was just referring to the plane vanilla variety. Both the Klan and the NAACP both say the same thing, "We are not anti-them, just pro us". The way I see it is the only difference is the color of their arm band.
“doesn’t count”
As our new Attorney General says, it’s time to discuss race in the US. It’s time to make it count.
He should have just converted to Islam; they would have likely given him a raise.
Would have provided him with a ready-made excuse for hunting her down, and beheading her, too.
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