Court Opinion

ID: 9573974
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:01:08.456817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:43:52.246746
License: Public Domain

LIVERMORE, Presiding Judge,
specially concurring.
Because a public employee may be dismissed for refusing to answer questions on the basis of the self-incrimination privilege only if those questions specifically, directly, and narrowly relate to the performance of his official duties, Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U.S. 273, 88 S.Ct. 1913, 20 L.Ed.2d 1082 (1968), and because off-duty criminality, though undoubtedly embarrassing to the public employer, does not meet that test, I do not believe that Williams can be discharged for his refusal to answer questions. I concur because his possession of jail records provides an independent basis for discharge.