Brandon Coats&#39; mother Donna brushes Brandon&#39;s hair at his home in Denver on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. The Colorado case of Brandon Coats is giving employers pause. Coats, 33, was a telephone operator for Dish Network. Paralyzed as a teenager in a car crash, he&#39;s also been a medical marijuana patient in Colorado since 2009. He was fired in 2010 for failing a company drug test, though the employer didn&#39;t claim he was ever impaired on the job. Coats sued, and the case is pending before the Colorado Court of Appeals. The case will test the bounds of Colorado&#39;s Lawful Off-Duty Activities Law, which says workers can&#39;t be dismissed for legal behavior off the clock. It was enacted in 2007 to protect tobacco users. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
{}