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Home Government

TSA Whistleblower Wins At Supreme Court

Mary Jane WilmothbyMary Jane Wilmoth
January 21, 2015
in Government, News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
Supreme Court
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Washington, D.C. January 21, 2015. Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former Air Marshall Robert MacLean was not “specifically prohibited by law” from disclosing information to the press about TSA’s plan to cutback on the number of air marshals during a terrorist alert. Such a disclosure was against agency regulations.

The Whistleblower Protection Act prohibits individuals in positions of authority from taking a “personnel action” against a government employee when the employee makes a disclosure, which the employee reasonable believes to evidence a “substantial and specific danger to public health and safety, if such disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law.”

The issue the Supreme Court decided was whether when a federal statute bars whistleblower from making disclosures that are “specifically prohibited by law,” does this bar also apply to disclosures prohibited by agency regulations?

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In the 7-2 Decision in Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean, the court stated that the agency had “legitimate” concerns that a leak such as MacLean’s would “endanger public safety.” However, the Court ruled the agency regulations did not have sufficient legal force to bar him from receiving protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act and that the agency’s “concerns must be addressed by Congress or the president rather than by this court.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, whose decision was upheld, had sent the case back to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to determine whether the Whistleblower Protection Act applies to MacLean’s specific case. Now MacLean will continue his legal battle at the MSPB.

Links:

Previous posts on the MacLean case

Court’s Decision

 

Tags: National SecurityRobert MacLeanSupreme CourtTSA
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Mary Jane Wilmoth

Mary Jane Wilmoth

Mary Jane Wilmoth is the publisher of Whistleblower Network News, where she heads the editorial staff. She writes about breaking whistleblower news, and False Claims Act whistleblowers, SEC whistleblowers, IRS whistleblowers, FCPA whistleblowers, and CFTC whistleblowers. Mary Jane is the managing partner at the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, and a frequent contributor to The Whistleblower and Qui Tam Blog. She is a licensed attorney in the District of Columbia and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center).

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