Why are Amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act Necessary?
• In 1989, Congress unanimously passed the Whistleblower Protection Act (“WPA”) for the federal civil service as the strongest free speech law in history, on paper. Unfortunately, the law has been functionally overturned by a series of increasingly hostile case decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which holds a monopoly on judicial review of whistleblower cases. In practice it has become an efficient mechanism to rubber stamp retaliation – an enforcement weapon for secrecy, instead of a shield for freedom of speech. • Although the law on paper protects “any” lawful disclosure an employee “reasonably believes evidence” significant misconduct, the Court now excludes the most common situations in which whistleblower disclosures are made, including if the whistleblower disclosure is made in the course of doing one’s job duties (like an auditor or safety inspector), or if someone else previously has pointed out the same misconduct. The court translated “reasonab
