Is this an example of an illegal search/ civil liberties violation?

A friend of mine was just fired from his job this past week. He is considering filing suit against his former employer but is interested in knowing some details before filing suit.

Supposedly there was something written on a sheet of paper that created a stir. What was written was never disclosed by the employer nor was their any mention of the nature of the writing. The only thing disclosed by the employer was that there was some "chatter" about it.

The employee was coerced into submitting to a "hand writing" test with the threat of job loss. Feeling that this was a violation of his civil liberties, he refused to submit, and was subsequently fired. This kinda raised my eyebrows over the whole issue when my friend told me that this company has plenty of samples of his hand writing. The bulk of their shift is spent filling out forms.

This fact kinda begs the question; Considering that they have samples of the handwriting why not just use that? If this is a legal act, why coerce the employee to submit to the test?

Is this employee allowed to have his rights disclosed before submitting to such a test?

There are vast differences in worker protection from state to state.

I tink they have laws protecting employees from lie detector tests as well. I'm not sure if this example fits into that.

any reason at all.

That said, anytime they talk about this cloak and dagger bullshit, they are hiding something.

in this case is what irks me.