Court Opinion

ID: 9595562
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:41:43.869056+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:28.742288
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Vice Chief Justice
(dissenting) :
The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S. Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972), makes it perfectly clear that Smith did not have a constitutional right to a hearing before The Pima County Law Enforcement Merit System Council in connection with the decision to terminate his employment with the Pima County Sheriff’s Office. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States only prevents a state from depriving a person of liberty or property without due process of law. Smith did not have tenure or other claim to the position he held which would qualify as a property interest; nor was there an impairment of his liberty, since he was not accused of dishonesty or immorality. Smith’s non-retention for the reasons specified in the Personnel Action Form might make him somewhat less attractive to another employer, but that hardly establishes the kind of foreclosure of opportunity amounting to a deprivation of liberty. See footnote 13, Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 574, 92 S.Ct. at 2707-2708, 33 L.Ed.2d at 559.
A public employee in Smith’s situation is not entitled by statute to a hearing before the merit system council for law enforcement officers just to clear his good name, A.R.S. § 38-1003, et seq., and there is no law of general application which would entitle him to a hearing for that purpose. If the reasons specified on the Personnel Action Form are false, then it is possible Smith may have some redress through another kind of legal action. But the Legislature has not provided him with the right to argue the reasons for his discharge before The Pima County Law Enforcement Merit System Council, nor has it required the members of that board to decide who has the best of the argument, nor has the Superior Court if Smith is dissatisfied with the council’s decision.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent to the holding that Smith has a right to a hearing to clear his “good name” even though he is not entitled to retention as a deputy, sheriff.