In a strong affirmation of binding arbitration, the Court of Appeals yesterday rejected the State’s attempt to fire a prison guard who flew a Nazi flag at his home on the anniversary of Hitler’s declaration of war against the United States.
The State had asked the Court to overturn an arbitral award and allow it to dismiss the corrections officer on public policy grounds. Officials had claimed that Officer Edward Kuhnel’s apparent support of Nazism created a substantial risk that endangered both inmates and staff at the Eastern Correctional Facility. But the unanimous Court declined to “invade the province of the arbitrator under the guise of public policy, and to re-examine and re-determine the merits of the case.”
