New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer
United States Supreme Court
440 U.S. 568 (1979)
The New York City Transit Authority (defendant) refused to hire or continue employing anyone currently enrolled in a methadone maintenance program, a treatment used by roughly 40,000 New Yorkers primarily to manage heroin-withdrawal symptoms. Beazer and others (plaintiffs) brought a class action challenging the policy on behalf of everyone rejected or discharged from Transit Authority jobs because of methadone treatment, and the district court found the policy unconstitutional, a ruling the Second Circuit affirmed before the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether a transit agency's blanket exclusion of all persons currently enrolled in a methadone maintenance program from employment violates the Equal Protection Clause, even though some excluded individuals would not pose any actual safety risk.