BUSINESSES HAVE A RIGHT TO NOT HIRE EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE BROKEN THEIR RULES

The federal government should not force employers to rehire workers who
have violated their trust and broken their rules.

But that's just what the Supreme Court is being asked to do. A suit heard
by the court this week seeks to use the Americans With Disabilities Act to
force companies to rehire employees who were fired for drinking or using
drugs on the job.

Joel Hernandez lost his job with a missile manufacturer in 1991. He had
showed up for work smelling of alcohol, and a drug test showed he had been
using cocaine.

In 1994, Hernandez reapplied for his job, saying he had recovered from his
substance abuse problems. But his former employer said it had a policy
against rehiring people who had broken the company's rules. It refused to
rehire him.

Now Hernandez and his lawyers want the government to force the company to
give him his job back. The Americans with Disabilities Act demands it, they
claim.

Nonsense. The government should not force companies to retain or rehire
people guilty of misconduct on the job, people who have violated the
company's standard for employee conduct. The government also has no right
to force the company to hire someone who has been a safety risk in the past.

Think of the liability that would be forced on employers if the court ruled
in favor of Hernandez. If someone were fired for being drunk on the job,
the company has acted responsibly. If that employee comes back after having
gone through some treatment, the company could be forced to rehire him.

But suppose the employee reverts back to his old habits. But this time,
before he gets fired again, he causes an accident that hurts or kills
another employee. The company could be held liable for hiring someone
managers knew had a history of showing up for work drunk.

It is no stretch of the imagination to think that the same court system
that forced the company to rehire the worker under the Americans with
Disabilities Act would then hold the company liable for knowingly employing
a safety risk.

Employers should be able to hire the best people they can as long as they
don't discriminate. Hernandez was not discriminated against. He was simply
held accountable for his past actions. The Supreme Court should discard
Hernandez's claims.