Supreme Court Backs Former Air Marshal In Whistleblower Case
” The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a former air marshal can seek whistleblower protections for disclosing sensitive information to the news media about the absence of security officers on certain flights.
On a 7-2 vote, the court rejected arguments made by President Barack Obama’s administration, which was seeking to reverse an appeals court ruling favoring whistleblower Robert MacLean, who was fired for the 2003 leak.
” I believe the ruling will give other federal employees more confidence to expose wrongdoing,” MacLean, who was fired in 2006 and now works in residential construction management in California, said in an interview.
The legal question was whether MacLean’s actions may be protected by the U.S. Whistleblower Protection Act, a law that protects employees if a disclosure exposes unlawful conduct, gross mismanagement or threats to public safety.
In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court concluded that U.S. Transportation Security Administration regulations that prohibited MacLean’s disclosures did not have sufficient legal force to bar him from receiving protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act.”
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