(02-27) 08:22 PST Omaha, Neb. (AP) -- The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the firing of a State Patrol trooper with ties to the Ku Klux Klan.
Justice John Gerrard wrote in the opinion released Friday that Robert Henderson voluntarily associated with an organization that uses violence and terror to oppose the state's founding principles of equality and tolerance.
Henderson, a trooper for 18 years, was dismissed in 2006 after the patrol discovered he had joined a racist group. An arbitrator said Henderson was wrongly fired, but a judge overturned that decision.
Henderson's attorney, Vincent Valentino, argued to the high court that arbitrators, not judges, have the final say.