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Ear to the Ground

Supreme Court Limits Whistle-Blower Lawsuits

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Posted on May 30, 2006

The court today ruled that First Amendment guarantees do not always protect government employees when they speak out pursuant to their official capacities—as opposed to as citizens speaking out on matters of public concern.

  • Here’s how SCOTUSblog interprets the ruling: “This apparently means that employees may be disciplined for their official capacity speech, without any First Amendment scrutiny, and without regard to whether it touches on matters of ‘public concern’—a very significant doctrinal development.”

  • Washington Post:

    The Supreme Court today narrowed the First Amendment protections for public employees who reveal perceived wrongdoing they happen to observe in the course of doing their jobs.

    The decision enhances the ability of governments at all levels to punish employees for speaking out, shielding officials in many instances from lawsuits for violating the right to free speech.

    It does not interfere with federal or state laws that independently protect the actions of whistleblowers.

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    If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

    By Druthers, May 30, 2006 at 1:46 pm Link to this comment
    (Unregistered commenter)

    We now have five Catholic extreme right-wing judges brought up on their knees before an infaillable father-figure who are going to go for it to enforce any hierarchial power structure functioning from the top down.
    At one time people questioned where or not we could ever have a Catholic president for this very reason and now they have a majority in the Supreme Court. 
    Has anyone investigated any relation to Opus Dei?
    The country is going down, fishing, hunting, and rolling over.

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