ABSTRACT
During the 1980s, Supreme Court decisions regarding the public employment relationship continued to be an important feature of public personnel administration in the United States. The relationship is distinctive to the public sector because it seeks “…to accommodate the dual role of the public employer as provider of public services and as a government entity operating under the constraints…” of the Constitution ( Rankin v. McPherson 1987: 5021; Rosenbloom 1971). Although there has been a “…common-sense realization that government offices could not function if every employment decision became a constitutional matter” ( Connick v. Myers 1983: 143), there is also a broad recognition that public employees have significant constitutional protections against the actions of their governmental employers. Moreover, by the 1980s, judicial decisions became increasingly cognizant of “…the impact of the public employment relationship on the public at large” ( Harvard Law Review 1984: 1748). Yet, adjudicating the competing claims of governmental employers for effective control of their work forces and those of public employees for the retention of basic constitutional rights within the context of their employment, while also assessing the public interest in the functioning of the public service, has perplexed the judiciary.
