Prohibited Personal Practices in employment discrimination.

Barring an illegal reason, a prospective employer has, as a general rule, an absolute right to set its own hiring criteria. At least on the surface, a rigorously enforced drug policy would appear to pass initial scrutiny, especially given the fact its the police department. What you would have to show, therefore, at least within the context of discrimination law, is that the reason the policy department proffered for rejecting your application was a pretext for a discriminatory motive. In other words, you would have to show that the police department refused to hire you, or even interview you, because of some characteristic that it was forbidden to consider under law.

There are a discrete set of characteristics that an employer cannot weigh when reviewing a job applicant. These include race, gender, ethnicity, familial status, age, and veteran status (each of these a protected class). To prove your case, you would need to show either that a manager or someone in a position to effect the hiring decision made disparaging comments in connection with a protected class, or else other factors, like someone identical to you in all relevant regards who was not in the protected class, was hired, while you were not. So, if you are an African American who has used of illegal narcotics in the past, you would look to see if the successful candidate was white and also had a history of admitted narcotics abuse. If the police department gave more than one reason, like lack of pertinent experience, you will need to defeat each of these reasons, and your comparability to the successful candidate becomes more important.

There are certain essential requirements you must meet before you can pursue a discrimination lawsuit. The one most pertinent to you is that you have only 180 days to file an initial complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The complaint is an essential prerequisite before you can access the courts.

Discrimination law is complex. If you think you may have a claim you should consult a civil rights or labor and employment attorney in your area. The initial consultation is almost always free.