Gardner v. Broderick

Gardner (plaintiff), a police officer, was subpoenaed before a grand jury investigating corruption and told he would be fired unless he signed a waiver of his self-incrimination privilege; he refused to sign and was terminated. He sued for reinstatement, and the state courts ruled against him, distinguishing his case from precedent protecting a lawyer's refusal to give self-incriminating testimony at a disciplinary hearing, on the theory that a police officer's duty runs to the public while a lawyer's runs only to his client.