Bush’s Big Court Win On Whistleblowers
A new Supreme Court ruling on whistleblowers underscores the shift that has occurred on the Supreme Court with the appointment of President George W. Bush’s two new Supreme Court justices:
The Supreme Court declared today, in a ruling affecting millions of government employees, that the Constitution does not always protect their free-speech rights for what they say on the job.In a 5-to-4 decision, the court held that public employees’ free-speech rights are protected when they speak out as citizens on matters of public concern, but not when they speak out in the course of their official duties.
Today’s ruling, involving a deputy Los Angeles district attorney who contended that he had been denied a promotion for challenging the legitimacy of a search warrant, came in a case that has been closely watched not just by public workers but by those who have worried that it could discourage internal whistle-blowers from speaking up about government misconduct and inefficiency.
“We hold that when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the court.
The court’s newest justice, Samuel A. Alito Jr., was in the majority as were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
The ruling noted the enormous variety of factual situations involving relationships between public employers and their employees, and it suggested that the particular facts of a case must be closely examined.
There will be (and are already) many legal analyses on this decision, but even though we may not see this exact line-up on future cases, it does represent a shift and Alito seemed to be the deciding vote. Depending on where you stand, it’s good news or bad news but one thing it doesn’t seem to be is business as usual. The question is whether it will be.
7 Responses to “Bush’s Big Court Win On Whistleblowers”
wow. when you do something that pisses off your employer, you could get fired. man. i can’t believe the SUPREME court would put such an onerous burden on our esteem public employees, who ultimately work for us. i kinda thought once they got hired, we could never get rid of them. wonder if they can get fired for never doing any work? nahhhh!!!!
Do you think that it’s OK for the executives of Enron or some similarly ethically challenged set of “employers” to fire someone who is in fact doing their job when they report major fraud on the part of those executives since their responsibility in the end lies with the stockholders, not a cadre of corrupt upper level executives? Whistleblowers are a necessity to hold those in either the public or private sector who fail those who entrusted them with their postions, whether it is the politician who betrays those who elected him or a CEO who betrays the stockholders.
I don’t the case was as simple as whether or not whistleblowers have any protection. Kennedy said that existing whistleblower protection laws are sufficient. The decision merely said that whistleblowers don’t have absolute First Amendment case for speaking out. I’m not sure what the practical effect of this will be. Nor am I sure that O’Connor wouldn’t have voted the way Alito did.
Well strike one for the big businesses paying off the courts. Go to work shut your mouth and do your job. Can’t say that big corporation don’t have their hands in the Supreme Court. I always thought the Supreme Courts was their to help the citizens of the country not big businesses but obviously, big businesses got their hands in the Supreme Courts pockets now.
Not much for Justice. This is just a prelude of things to come. Pretty soon they will decide on the second amendment – Right to bare arms.
Take for instance Jerry Spence and many other Attorneys. Jerry has spent his lifetime representing the poor, the injured, the forgotten and the damned against what he calls “the new slave master,” mammoth corporation and mammoth government. He has tried and won many nationally known cases, including the Karen Silkwood case, the defense of Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, the defense of Imelda Marcos, the case against Penthouse Magazine for Miss Wyoming and other important crinimal and civil trials. He has never lost a criminal case. He has not lost a civil case since 1969. He has had more multi-million dollar verdicts without an intervening loss than any lawyer in America.
Now what? It’s okay for large corporation to pollute, destroy human health, the environment in which we all live? And big corporation can now tell employees if you don’t like the way they do business because it’s unsafe, destroys are drinking water, contaminates the air we breathe or puts other lives at risk (community and employees) to bad you no longer work for their corporation. And who is the Whistle Blower going to tell? No one, because their rights are no longer protected and they will suffer the ultimate consequences should they speak out.
What does this say for our future, our childrens future and future generations? Everything that the laws like OSHA, the EPA, etc. have set forth to protect the people, The Supreme Court has taken away. Go Ahead big corporations – Pollute, destroy the earth and the land that we all live on. Your company dollar is far more important than the lives of many innocent people.
I thought that I always read that the Constitution stated “WE THE PEOPLE” / not “WE THE CORPORATIONS”
Um, Brenda, this was a government employee and the decision, surprisingly enough, concerned only government employees. No big, evil corporations involved in this case at all. Hopefully, though, your hyperventilating provided some aerobic conditioning so your rant wasn’t a total loss.
Justice Kennedy wrote:
So, while the 9th Circuit was happy with the prospect of playing ombudsman for potentially every government employee, the Supremes wanted no part of that. They rightly concluded that if it’s that all-fired important, then Congress can pass a law. Who wants to take on the job of nanny to a whole nation full of government employees who have issues with their bosses?
Interesting that this happened to come up in this administration. I wonder if republicans will support it if/when a democrat is president. Or will it change to, no no we need to support the whistleblowers in government jobs to protect us from the evil liberals and democrats?
Just saying, when the shoe is on the other foot, don’t come crying. If whistleblowers in this administration are going to be penalized or thrown in jail, expect the same from a democratic administration. No complaining allowed either.
luckily as Brian pointed out this only applied to public sector employees, so the Enron type stuff is still protected…for now.
With this rule in place years ago Nixon wouldn’t have been impeached?