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The Supreme Court and the Continuing Deconstitutionalization of Public Personnel Management

James Madison University, robertrn{at}jmu.edu

In Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture, the Supreme Court held that public employees may not use the so-called equal protection clause of class-of-one doctrine to challenge the constitutionality of arguably arbitrary adverse personnel actions. In the 2000 case of Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, the high court had authorized citizens to bring class-of-one equal protection lawsuits to challenge arguably arbitrary discretionary decisions by government officials. The decision provides further evidence of the ongoing effort by a majority of the Roberts Court to limit the constitutional rights of public employees. The article argues that the ongoing deconstitutionalization of public personnel management has significant implications for the management of public organizations. If the trend continues, public employees, much like their private sector counterparts, will become much more dependent on statutory protections and collective bargaining agreements to protect them from arbitrary personnel decisions.

Key Words: privilege doctrine • class of one • equal protection clause • Roberts Court • constitutional tort • constitutional rights

This version was published on March 1, 2009

Review of Public Personnel Administration, Vol. 29, No. 1, 3-19 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0734371X08327959


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