By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a former University of Kentucky employee that he was wrongfully terminated by the school for having a handgun in his car on campus property.
The ruling allows Michael Mitchell to pursue a civil claim of wrongful termination against the university. It also protects individuals who keep guns and other deadly weapons in their car glove compartments, according to the Associated Press.
Mitchell was terminated in 2009, one week after several employees at the university’s Chandler Medical Center told hospital officials they believed he had a gun in his locker. A search of the locker turned up nothing, but Mitchell volunteered that he had a semiautomatic pistol in his car.
Police confiscated the gun, according to the court, and Mitchell was placed on suspension on April 22. A week later, he was fired. Mitchell sued, asserting that his termination violated public policy, specifically his right to bear arms as affirmed by both the US Constitution and the State Constitution.
The trial court ruled in favor of the university, granting a summary judgment in the school’s favor. Mitchell appealed directly to the State Supreme Court, bypassing the state appeals court.
In its analysis of the case, the court referred to state statute which clearly protects people from keeping guns in their cars if they are licensed to carry.
The court also found something of a conflict in state law, which also allows colleges and universities “the power and authority to govern and control the method and purpose of use of property owned or occupied by their respective institution[s].”
However, the court ruled that state statute “…forbids public and private organizations from imposing any prohibition on possession of a deadly weapon in a vehicle, provided that (1) the person so possessing is properly licensed to carry a concealed deadly weapon, and (2) the person is in compliance with (state law)..”
“To the extent that (state statutes) are in direct conflict,” the court ruled, “we hold that the conflict must be resolved in favor of (the concealed carry statute). We base this on the General Assembly’s explicit statement that the concealed carry licensing statute is to be liberally construed in favor of the right to bear arms, as well as the legislature’s clearly expressed policy of exempting a person’s vehicle from firearms regulation.”
