John Heyman at Workforce Magazine just wrote a great article on legal issues arising from termination of employees with repugnant political views: When You Discover That You Employ a Nazi In short, Mr. Heyman endorses an employer’s right to terminate employees with Neo-Nazi beliefs.
Mr. Heyman’s analysis applies equally-well in Alabama. As I’ve written on numerous occasions, employees in Alabama possess very few legal rights, because Alabama is an “employment-at-will” state. This means that an employee, who does not possess a written employment contract, can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all. Of course, federal law can overrule Alabama’s general employment-at-will rule. As a result, employers in Alabama cannot terminate employees who are protected by a federal law. Thus, many forms of discrimination are prohibited in Alabama, because they are barred by federal laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Mr. Heyman’s article notes that employees expressing political views on their own time may receive protection from the National Labor Relations Board. So, there may be some circumstances when employers in Alabama would be ill-advised to terminate employees based upon their political beliefs. Also, governmental-employers face additional obstacles. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects freedom of speech. But, the First Amendment only protects citizens from invasion of their rights by government. In most cases, private employers are not required to give employees free speech rights. But, the First Amendment generally prohibits governmental employers for terminating employees based upon their political viewpoints.