Supreme Court Ruling Silences Whistle Blowers

On May 30, the U.S. Supreme Court decided five to four that public employees can be punished for complaining to their management about possible wrongdoing. In this case, the employee, an assistant district attorney, was transferred to a lesser job farther from home and denied promotion. His infraction was writing an intra-office memo that alleged a police officer lied in order to obtain a search warrant. The case was heard twice because the first time it ended in a four-four tie with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor not voting. President Bush must be extremely pleased that his court nominations, which fit his Scalia ideal, are returning dividends. The signal sent by the court is "whistle-blowers better watch out because we can now get you for releasing any information that is embarrassing to us." One doesn't have to be a genius to conclude that government wrongdoing will go unreported because people will be afraid to speak out. We are not totally aware of the freedoms we have lost because the government does not feel obligated to inform us when it does so. The National Security Agency, with full presidential approval, was conducting warrantless wiretaps on private conversations for four years before we learned about it. Now it seems that another freedom has been taken by the Bush administration. Mr. Bush has displayed unprecedented hubris in managing a presidency that can trump laws passed by Congress and even parts of the Constitution that he finds inconvenient. I just wonder how many more freedoms must be taken from us before we rise up and say enough. Nick Reina, Milmay Published June 15, 2006 in The Daily Journal