A chill to whistle-blowing

Legal technicalities are one thing.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court reversed a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the case of a Los Angeles deputy district attorney who claimed his First Amendment rights had been violated when he penned a memo to his supervisors alleging that police had made "grossly inaccurate" statements to obtain a search warrant. When the memo came to light in the course of a related criminal case, (the attorney informed defense counsel of the memo's existence) the prosecutor said he was punished by demotion, reassignment and various indignities he said violated his First Amendment rights.

But a divided Supreme Court disagreed. On a 5-4 vote, the court held that constitutional free-speech protections to workers engaged in their regular duties would intrude on managers' discretion. The majority contends that existing whistle-blower and labor laws will protect those who expose wrongdoing, something civil libertarians dispute.

Yes, there are laws and policies that protect people who expose wrongdoing. The danger of this ruling is that people in a position to expose corruption and inefficiencies won't out of fear that they are more prone to retaliation from employers if they speak out in ways that displease their bosses.

If they feel muzzled, there is a greater likelihood that information that ought to be brought to light won't be. That transparency helps to keep our government accountable.

Because of whistle-blowers such as veteran FBI agent Colleen Rowley, Americans know that the FBI ignored information about the 9/11 hijackers. Because of whistle-blowers, we know that the National Security Administration has conducted domestic wiretapping. Because of whistle-blowers, we know that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff inappropriately influenced lawmakers. The list goes on and on.

Now, people best in the position to detect wrongdoing and consider themselves accountable to the American people will not risk retribution to do the right thing. All Americans will be the losers for it.