The Supreme Court extended whistle-blower protection Wednesday to an Orange County man who disclosed that the government was about to remove armed air marshals from overnight flights to save money on hotels.This is by no means over, but eight years of back pay is not an insignificant issue. And it's quite possible that the TSA is going to have to pay a boatload of attorneys' fees to Mr. MacLean's lawyers.
In a 7-2 decision, the high court said Congress wanted to shield whistle-blowers who disclose wrongdoing within the government.
In 2006, Robert J. MacLean was fired from his job as an air marshal after officials of the Transportation Security Administration learned that he was the source of a TV news report that revealed the planned cutback. They said he had disclosed sensitive security information.
I hope that comes out of the HQ budget for the TSA. Little chance of that, though.
1 comment:
IMO it's not "sensitive security info" yet if it's about a planned and avoidable future state.
Yet I don't think that he really disclosed "wrongdoing", unless its definition extended enough to include exposing the intent to diverge from publicly claimed policies.
At first sight the ruling looks like a stretch to me.
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