US Lawmen fired for swapping wives, families

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling and allowed a Louisiana sheriff's firing of two of his deputies for swapping wives and families.

Brandon Coker and Michael Golden, who worked in the southern state's Bossier parish, discovered the loves of their lives ... in each other's wife.

After consultation with their families, the men proceeded to simply swap homes – and wives. Neither couple divorced.

In October 2014, the unorthodox arrangement was discovered by their employer, Chief Deputy Sheriff Charles Owens.

Owens told the two their actions violated the Sheriff's Code of Conduct barring "illegal, immoral or indecent conduct" and placed them on administrative leave.

If they refused to return to their own homes until their divorces were finalised, they would be "considered to have terminated employment voluntarily," according to court documents.

Coker and Golden paid heed to their hearts, ignored their boss and later filed a lawsuit for unlawful termination, claiming the Code violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression and "the right of the people peaceably to assemble."

But both a District and an Appeals Court backed their employer.

"Sexual decisions between consenting adults take on a different colour when the adults are law enforcement officers," the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling in May.

The law "does not create 'rights' based on relationships that mock marriage," the ruling read.

By declining to review the case, the US Supreme Court effectively uphelds that ruling. – AFP