Court Opinion

ID: 9426443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:57.86962+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:00.877900
License: Public Domain

MR. Justice Blackmun,
with whom Mr. Justice Brennan joins, dissenting.
I join Mr. Justice White’s dissent for I agree that’ the Court appears to be adopting a legal principle which specifically was rejected by a majority of the Justices of this Court in Arnett v. Kennedy, 416 U. S. 134 (1974).
I also feel, however, that Still v. Lance, 279 N. C. 254, 182 S. E. 2d 403 (1971), the only North Carolina case cited by the Court and by the District Court, is by no means the authoritative holding on state law that the Court, ante, at 345, and n. 9, seems to think it is. In Still the Supreme Court of North Carolina considered a statute that contained no “for cause” standard for failure to renew a teacher’s contract at the end of a school year. In holding that this provision did not create a continued expectation of employment, the North Carolina court noted that it “does not limit the right of the employer board to terminate the employment of a teacher at the *362end of a school year to a specified cause or circumstance.” 279 N. C., at 260, 182 S. E. 2d, at 407. This provision, the court observed, stood in sharp contrast with another provision of the statute relating to termination of employment during the school year and prescribing that when “it shall have been determined that the services of an employee are not acceptable for the remainder of the current school year” (emphasis added), ibid., notice and hearing were required.
The Marion ordinance in the present case contains a “for cause” standard for dismissal and, it seems to me, is like that portion of the statute construed in Still pertaining to termination of employment during the year. As such, it plainly does not subject an employee to termination at the will and pleasure of the municipality, but, instead, creates a proper expectation of continued employment so long as he performs his work satisfactorily. At this point, the Federal Constitution steps in and requires that appropriate procedures be followed before the employee may be deprived of his property interest.