Opinion ID: 1916676
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: a. a constitutionally protected interest

Text: Due process scrutiny of administrative procedures is available only where the litigant makes a threshold showing that he has at stake a legitimate property or liberty interest which is subject to protection under the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. Mazaleski v. Treusdell, 183 U.S.App.D.C. 182, 190, 562 F.2d 701, 709 (1977); Pinkney v. District of Columbia, 439 F.Supp. 519, 530 (D.D.C. 1977); see Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569-70, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2705, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972). Property interests, of course, are not created by the Constitution. Rather, they are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law  rules or understanding that secure certain benefits and that support claims of entitlements to those benefits. [ Id. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709.] See also Bishop v. Wood, 426 U.S. 341, 344, 96 S.Ct. 2074, 2077, 48 L.Ed.2d 684 (1976); Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 601, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 2699, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972). In the District of Columbia, Congress had established for members of the Police Department a statutory right to administrative leave not chargeable to the sick leave account of the officer where absence is due to injury or illness resulting from the performance of duty. 5 U.S.C. § 6324(a) (1976); see note 1 supra. Statutory employment rights have previously been held to fall within the liberty and property concept of the Fifth Amendment. See, e.g., Fitzgerald v. Hampton, 152 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 8, 467 F.2d 755, 762 (1972) (a veteran's statutory right under the Veteran's Preference Act, 5 U.S.C. § 7701 (1976), to an open and public hearing prior to his discharge from the Air Force fell sufficiently within the liberty and property concepts of the Fifth Amendment to invoke the protection of the due process clause.) The statutory right due District police officers to administrative sick leave in case of injury or illness incurred in the performance of duty creates for police officers more than a mere unilateral expectation, and is, we find, a legitimate claim of entitlement. See Board of Regents v. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709. As such, the officer's interest in obtaining administrative leave is a property right subject to the protections afforded by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.