In the case of Uniformed Sanitation Men Association, Inc. v. Commissioner of Sanitation of the City of New York et al., 1967, sanitation workers in New York were accused by their employer (the city's Department of Sanitation) and subsequently indicted for criminal conspiracy due to alleged involvement in a work stoppage strike. The employees were then suspended without a hearing based on these accusations and indictments. The Supreme Court ruled that this suspension violated the Due Process Clause under the Fourteenth Amendment because it was done without giving them an opportunity for a hearing to challenge these allegations before being deprived employment rights - i.e., their jobs and wages. This ruling established that public employees have constitutional protection against arbitrary deprivation or denial of employment without due process.

In the dissenting opinion for Uniformed Sanitation Men Assn., Inc. v. Commissioner of Sanitation of the City of New York, Justice William O. Douglas argued that public employees should not be forced to forfeit their Fifth Amendment rights as a condition of employment. He contended that compelling sanitation workers to answer questions about alleged misconduct or face job termination was unconstitutional self-incrimination, even if those answers could not be used in criminal proceedings against them later on. In his view, this practice violated due process and amounted to coercion by threatening livelihoods unless individuals incriminated themselves - an act he believed was fundamentally unfair and contrary to American principles of justice.