On February 27, 2009, the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected an arbitration award reinstating a state trooper who was fired for belonging to a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. The court held that the arbitrator’s award should not be enforced because it violates the state’s public policy against race discrimination. (Nebraska State Patrol v. Henderson, Neb., No. S-07-010, 2/27/09).

Although acknowledging that arbitrator’s awards are given deference, Justice John Gerrard, writing for the court, stated that arbitration awards are not “sacrosanct.” According to the court, “One cannot simultaneously wear the badge of the Nebraska State Patrol and the robe of a Klansman.”

While the dissent did not agree with the arbitrator’s findings, they would nevertheless have given deference to his findings under “well-established principles of arbitration law.”

According to the Daily Labor Report, the case’s factual background is as follows:

Henderson, a veteran Nebraska state trooper, joined the Knights Party, an organization affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, in June 2004, after his wife left him for a Hispanic man. According to the opinion, “Henderson admitted that the Knights Party is essentially the same entity as the Ku Klux Klan.” In messages that he posted on a Knights Party online discussion forum under the screen name “White knight in NE,” he mentioned that he worked in law enforcement. After the State Patrol began investigating his membership, Henderson resigned from the Knights Party in February 2006. Henderson was fired anyway, and the State Law Enforcement Bargaining Council filed a grievance on his behalf under the collective bargaining agreement. The arbitrator ordered Henderson’s reinstatement. The district court vacated the reinstatement order, and Henderson and the council appealed.