Some people may have heard the phrase “due process” on TV courtroom dramas or in human resource offices. But a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court case gives more insight into what it really means and how it applies to Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond and a detective at the center of a arrest that went viral.
Public employees facing termination possess legal protections that employees in the private sector don’t, partly as a result of Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, a case that started in one of Ohio’s federal courts in the 1970s, and other civil service laws. If governments don’t follow those protections, public employees can sue them for monetary relief. And in Hamilton County, former employees have done just that, and received settlements, in two high-profile cases in recent years.
“It’s a powerful section of constitutional law, and if [government entities] don’t follow the process properly, you can get in some legal trouble,” said Chattanooga attorney Robin Flores, who represented a former local firefighter in one of those cases.
The discussion about due process comes amid a disagreement among some community members who want detective Blake Kilpatrick to be fired immediately for his role in the viral Dec. 3 arrest of Charles Toney Jr. and others who want the appropriate legal process to play out.
“What’s clear, from the very first day I talked to the sheriff, is we want him fired,” said Elenora Woods, president of the Hamilton County-Chattanooga NAACP. “But there is a thing called due process.”