Whistleblowers Not on Planet Supreme Court

According to the Supreme Court opinion issued today in the whistleblower case Garcetti v. Ceballos (No. 04-473): “We reject, however, the notion that the First Amendment shields from discipline the expressions employees make pursuant to their professional duties.” In other words, public employees who blow the whistle can be retaliated against. In making the decision, the court cites “the powerful network of legislative enactments—such as whistle-blower protection laws and labor codes—available to those who seek to expose wrongdoing.” Anyone who works with whistleblowers or who bothered to read the daily newspaper would know that this claim is complete fallacious – especially see the Congressional Research Service’s December 2005 report, the House National Security Subcommittee Briefing Memo on whistleblower protections from February 2006 (pdf), or POGO’s report from last year. Here is a list of important federal whistleblowers who have been fired or demoted in recent years. These cases are just the tip of the iceberg – please add more in your comments. Also see goverup's posting today on this issue.

Click this link to see the list.

-- Beth Daley

Teresa Chambers – Post 9/11 security of national monuments. Fired.

SOURCE: CNN, July 10, 2004.

Bogdan Dzakovic – Protection of commercial aircraft from terrorist attacks. Demoted.

SOURCE: Dzakovic’s Statement to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, May 22, 2003.

Sibel Edmonds – FBI translation unit failures post 9/11. Fired.

SOURCE: New York Times, January 15, 2005.

Kevin Gambrell – Oil and gas industry fraud on federal and Indian lands. Fired.

SOURCE: Associated Press, September 19, 2003.

Bunnatine Greenhouse - Halliburton whistleblower. Demoted.

SOURCE: Washington Post, August 29, 2005.

Rich Levernier – Nuclear weapons security. Demoted (security clearance revoked). Now retired.

SOURCE: 60 Minutes, August 29, 2004, and Levernier’s Congressional testimony before the House Subcommittee on National Security in February 14, 2006.

Joe Mansour - Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism training in the prisons. Demoted.

SOURCE: Washington Post, March 10, 2006.

Sergeant Samuel Provance – Prisoner torture at Abu Ghraib. Demoted ("reduced in rank").

SOURCE: Provance’s Congressional testimony before the House National Security Subcommittee, February 14, 2006.

Anthony Shaffer - Intelligence gathering to identify potential terrorists. Demoted (security clearance taken away).

SOURCE: Shaffer’s Congressional testimony before the House National Security Subcommittee, February 14, 2006.

Christopher Steele - Nuclear weapons safety and security. Pushed out of job.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2006.

Russ Tice – Espionage of co-worker. Fired.

SOURCE: Tice’s Congressional testimony before the House National Security Subcommittee, February 14, 2006.

Comments

[Posted on: May 31, 2006 at 09:19 AM]

Thanks Beth, for that list.

I don't have anything to add right now, but have posted the list on dailykos.com for discussion.

[Posted on: May 30, 2006 at 11:58 PM]

From the conclusion of the decision:

"Cases involving government attorneys implicate additional safeguards in the form of, for example, rules of conduct and constitutional obligations apart from the First Amendment. See, e.g., Cal. Rule Prof. Conduct 5–110 (2005) (“A member in government service shall not institute or cause to be instituted criminal charges when the member knows or should know that the charges are not supported by probable cause”); Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963)."

My problem with the case is that Mr. Ceballos did not use the available avenues, particularly he did not cite his professional status as a licensed attorney as requiring his disclosure, to obtain relief and redress.