On April 1, 2021, Long Island employment lawyers Famighetti & Weinick PLLC filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the United States Supreme Court. The Petition asks the court to take up a case concerning the due process rights of public employees. Today’s Long Island employment law blog discusses the case and the petition.
Since 2019, employment attorney Matt Weinick has worked as co-counsel representing four former high ranking New York City Police Department officers. On behalf of the officers and along with co-counsel, the firm filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York alleging that the City of New York Police Department deprived the officers of due process by coercing their resignations without providing notice of charges against them or an opportunity to be heard about allegations of wrongdoing, constituting a deprivation of due process. The complaint alleged that the City acted to avoid a departmental hearing and wanted the officers removed from the department to take the fall for ongoing allegations of widespread corruption in the department. The case received press attention from, among other papers, the New York Post.
After the lawsuit was filed, the City ask the court to dismiss the case. The City argued that a 1984 case decided by New York’s federal appellate court, prohibited employees from suing municipalities for a violation of due process, when the claim is based on an allegation that the employees’ resignations were coerced. The trial court agreed and dismissed the case.