When a Law Enforcement Officer Is Fired, Is He or She Entitled to a Name Clearing Hearing?

Many, perhaps most, law enforcement officers in North Carolina are at will employees. As the saying goes, they may be fired for any reason or for no reason. But when such an officer is fired for malfeasance, and that reason is made public such that potential future employers may be aware of it, the officer may be entitled to a “name clearing hearing” at which he or she can dispute the basis for the termination. A key Supreme Court precedent in this area is Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564 (1972). That case involved a professor, not a police officer. The professor was hired by a public university in Wisconsin for a one-year term. When the term expired, it was not renewed. The university offered no reason for the non-renewal, and the professor was given no opportunity to contest it. He sued, alleging that due process required that he be given a hearing at which he could rebut whatever concerns led to his nonrenewal. The lower courts agreed, but the Supreme Court reversed. The professor wasn’t tenured, and he wasn’t fired in the middle of his term. He just wasn’t renewed, and he had neither a liberty nor a property interest under the Due Process Clause in future employment with the university. However, the Court said, things would be different if the university had made a “charge against him that might seriously damage his standing and associations in his community,” such as an allegation of “dishonesty[] [...]