Speaking of politicians with a conviction history...

I know nothing about Jackson City, Tennessee or the laws of that state regarding political rights of people with conviction history.  According to an article in The Jackson Sun, however, "a state law [requires] felons to petition a circuit court for their citizenship rights to be restored before they can hold elected office."  A former Jackson City Councilman Johnny Dodd, who also worked as a substitute teacher with the Jackson-Madison County school system until very recently, is in trouble for giving what seems to be a false answer on his applications for the substitute teacher job, as well as for not having his citizenship rights restored before running for his City Councilman position.

In response to these revelations, the school district terminated Mr. Dodd's employment and changed their policy to "prohibit[] people with felony records from working in the district."

There are 2 separate issues here.  One is that of his "dishonest" answer.  Again, I know nothing about Tennessee laws, but I note that, if it were in California, Mr. Dodd would've been entitled to answer "no" to those questions regarding his convictions if he had set aside and dismissed under Cal. Pen. Code § 1203.4 or 1203.4a.  The other is the matter of his convictions themselves.  The articles linked to above refer to a 1987 felony conviction for grand larceny and a 1999 misdemeanor conviction for disorderly conduct.

The 1987 grand larceny conviction, according to one of the articles, stems from an accusation that he stole various items from the store he was working at, including "a basketball goal, a television, a VCR, and two radar detectors."  The 1999 disorderly conduct conviction involves an incident where he "told a crowd of 100 to 150 people to ignore police orders to disperse" at a night club where he was the disc jockey.

After this lengthy description of the facts as reported in the articles, I have a couple of thought.  The first is that the school district's policy change likely runs afoul of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, according to EEOC, makes "an absolute bar to employment based on the mere fact that an individual has a conviction record... unlawful."  This particular jurisprudence on Title VII disparate impact theory mandates that an employer show "business necessity" for using a conviction record before making an adverse employment decision based on it.

The second point is more of a general observation--something I've noted before but bears repeating here--that a long history of rehabilitation seems to count for naught.  Granted, we have what appears to be an act of dishonesty on Mr. Dodd's part, if in fact it turns out that he really lied on his applications.  Even so, it is understandable why he would feel it necessary to deny his past convictions.  As Mr. Dodd himself put, "What do I have to do to put this behind me?"  The answer that the Jackson-Madison School District gave him is: there's nothing you can do.

I'll end this post with a statement from a former superintendent of the school district, Roy Weaver: "Weaver said Dodd's community activism, his work with the Boys and Girls Club, serving as a city councilman and his support of education made him a good role model for students. Dodd had served on the council since 1999."