You Can Be Terminated if You are a Republican!

Powers v. Richards, 549 F.3d 505 (C.A. 7, Dec. 2, 2008)

There was a bit of political maneuvering and jockeying going on in Illinois. Nearing the end of a Republican governorship, several politically-held jobholders came up with a plan to keep their jobs after the newly elected Democratic governor took office. The plan was simple - resign a few weeks ahead of the termination of the 4-year contract and then sign a new 4-year employment contract. The personnel forms were signed by the Deputy Director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services.

The plot thickens! A few weeks after Mr. Powers resigns Republican employee contracts, he gets appointed Executive Secretary of the Illinois Civil Service Commission (which is responsible for hearing appeals of state employees on things like terminations, transfers and violations of the personnel code.)

Shortly thereafter, in 2003, after Democratic Governor Rob Blagojevich (Mr. "pay me for Obama's seat") took office, his administration began an investigation into the "no-cut employment scheme" and concluded that Powers played a key role. Powers was then terminated after he admitted to inappropriately signing personnel forms.

Powers then sued Blagojevich and other state officials under 42 U.S.C. 1983, claiming that he was fired for his political affiliation and that he was denied procedural due process due to the lack of a pre-termination hearing. The District Court (C.D. Ill.) granted summary judgment to all defendants and Powers appealed.

The Court of Appeals noted with some surprise that, on appeal, Richards did not deny that Roberts was fired for being a Republican. However, it held that given his particular job, his rights had not been violated. The First Amendment did not prohibit his termination due to party affiliation because, it said, some jobs can only be done correctly when the employee supports the administration’s ideas about policy and governing. The test was whether the position required the employee to exercise political (as opposed to professional) judgment by crafting policy.

New York's New Power of Attorney Language

As promised, the following link will direct you to the required language that will become effective March 1, 2009. http://www.nysba.org/Content/NavigationMenu23/PowerofAttorneyLegislation/PowerofAttorneyLegislation.pdf

Domestic Relations Orders - Language must work or divorced spouse still gets the goods

A new U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning Domestic Relations Orders and instilling a ton more liability on the attorney representing the pension-holder. Here's the link to a great summary of the case: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1336350

"In sum, the Supreme Court decided that if a voluntary disclaimer in a domestic relations order ("DRO") by the divorcing spouse of an ERISA pension plan participant did not comply with the terms of the governing plan documents, the plan could pay the death benefit only to the participant's designee, who was the former spouse and disclaimant." (Id.)

New Power of Attorney Forms for N.Y.

Commencing on March 1, 2009, New York will be using a new power of attorney form. The last form was revised in 1994. The new 2009 version contains numerous definitions and revisions. I do not have a link to the site yet, but will post one soon.