Court Opinion

ID: 9427846
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:22:05.526075+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:10.004288
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stewart,
dissenting.
I joined the judgment of the Court in Elrod v. Burns, 427 U. S. 347, because it is my view that, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, “a nonpolicymaking, nonconfiden-tial government employee can [not] be discharged . . . from a job that he is satisfactorily performing upon the sole ground of his political beliefs.” Id., at 375. That judgment in my opinion does not control the present case for the simple reason *521that the respondents here clearly are not “nonconfidential” employees.
The respondents in the present case are lawyers, and the employment positions involved are those of assistants in the office of the Rockland County Public Defender. The analogy to a firm of lawyers in the private sector is a close one, and I can think of few occupational relationships more instinct with the necessity of mutual confidence and trust than that kind of professional association.
I believe that the petitioner, upon his appointment as Public Defender, was not constitutionally compelled to enter such a close professional and necessarily confidential association with the respondents if he did not wish to do so.*

 Contrary to repeated statements in the Court’s opinion, the present case does not involve “private political beliefs,” but public affiliation with a political party.