Opinion ID: 1916676
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: what process was duethe legal background

Text: We are accordingly compelled to consider whether the procedures accorded Officer Jones provide all the process that is constitutionally due before he could be deprived of his protected interest. See Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 332-33, 96 S.Ct. 893, 901-02, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). The Supreme Court has consistently held that some manner of hearing is required before a person may be finally deprived of a property interest, see, e.g., id. at 333, 96 S.Ct. at 902; Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 557-58, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2975-76, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974), or may be condemned to suffer grievous loss of any kind. Mathews v. Eldridge, supra 424 U.S. at 333, 96 S.Ct. at 902 (quoting Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath, 341 U.S. 123, 168, 71 S.Ct. 624, 646, 95 L.Ed. 817 (1951) (Frankfurter, J., concurring)). The opportunity to be heard, once established, must be granted at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner. Armstrong v. Manzo, 380 U.S. 545, 552, 85 S.Ct. 1187, 1191, 14 L.Ed.2d 62 (1965). As we have determined that a police officer's right to administrative leave is a property right under the Fifth Amendment due process clause, and as the decision of the Police Department  here, Assistant Chief O'Bryant's memorandum decision of November 3, 1976  is the final administrative determination of a police officer's right to administrative leave, Metropolitan Police Department General Order 1001.1 Parts II A 7, 8 (revised June 29, 1973), it follows that Officer Jones was entitled to some kind of hearing prior to the final denial of his right to administrative sick leave. The question remains what process was due. [D]ue process is flexible and calls for such procedural protections as the particular situation demands. Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 481, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2600, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972). See also Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U.S. 886, 895, 81 S.Ct. 1743, 1748, 6 L.Ed.2d 1230 (1961) (quoting Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath, supra 341 U.S. at 162, 71 S.Ct. at 643). (`Due process,' unlike some legal rules, is not a technical conception with a fixed content unrelated to time, place, and circumstances.) In any given situation, a balance must be struck to accommodate the competing interests of government and the individual. In Mathews v. Eldridge, supra 424 U.S. at 334-35, 96 S.Ct. at 902-03, the Supreme Court outlined a tripartite analysis for the determination of what process is due: [O]ur prior decisions indicate that identification of the specific dictates of due process generally requires consideration of three distinct factors: First, the private interest that will be affected by the official action; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and finally, the Government's interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail.