Washington Post: Fired Air Marshal Stands His Ground for Whistleblowers
A majority of the Supreme Court justices appeared to side with GAP client Robert MacLean during yesterday’s hearing on whether he was covered under the Whistleblower Protection Act. MacLean, a former federal air marshal, was fired after revealing a government plan to remove air marshal service during long-distance flights at the same time terrorists were threatening to target U.S. aircraft. Justice Sonia Sotomayor told MacLean’s lawyer that “the facts are very much in your favor.”
Key Quote (Washington Post): Robert MacLean exited the rarified air of the Supreme Court and walked down its 36 marble steps with the confidence of a cop who knows he’s right.
The tone of the questions and comments from the justices hearing his case provided ample reason for this former air marshal to feel good about the first Supreme Court case directly involving a federal whistleblower.
…
“The survival” of a federal whistleblower protection law passed in 1978 is at stake, said Tom Devine, legal director for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, which represents MacLean.
After the hearing, MacLean’s advocates looked forward to a ruling in his favor.
Key Quote (New York Times): Neal K. Katyal, a lawyer for Mr. MacLean, said his client was precisely the sort of worker the whistle-blower law was meant to protect. Mr. MacLean had acted quickly and responsibly, Mr. Katyal said, “in order to save something that otherwise would have been detrimental to national security.”
Justice Scalia added, “And he was successful.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Mr. Katyal that the case, Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean, seemed to involve a compelling example of a valuable disclosure. “The facts are very much in your favor,” she said.
Related Articles: New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, Reuters, USA Today, Bloomberg BNA
Reuters: Whistleblowing Protection for Compliance Officers Still Unsettled, Experts Say
More news coverage of the recent whistleblower panel event at Baruch College, the first stop on GAP’s 2014-15 American Whistleblower Tour. The discussion featured student loans whistleblower Jon Oberg, Enron scandal whistleblower Sherron Watkins, GAP President Louis Clark, and Labaton Sucharow’s Jordan Thomas. The speakers talked about legislation that aims to protect truth-tellers as well as the remaining obstacles that make it difficult to safely expose wrongdoing.
Key Quote: SEC rules protecting whistleblowers from retaliation, even if their complaints turn out to be unwarranted or exaggerated, also help in raising the internal profile of whistleblowers, [GAP President Louis] Clark said.
But companies are putting nondisclosure and non-disparagement provisions in separation agreements and even in employee handbooks, raising the possibility that employees will feel threatened even if they report conduct that is harming the company, Thomas and Clark noted.