“The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for government employees to file lawsuits claiming they were retaliated against for going public with allegations of official misconduct,” the AP reports. By a 5-4 vote, justices ruled “that the First Amendment does not provide protection for comments that a public employee makes in the course of performing regular duties, even if the comments alleged public corruption or government wrongdoing.” Justice Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote.
UPDATE: More on the ruling from SCOTUSBlog: “This apparently means that employees may be disciplined for their official capacity speech, without any First Amendment scrutiny, and without regard to whether it touches on matters of “public concern” — a very significant doctrinal development.” 11:20 am
Think Progress » Supreme Court rules against gov’t whistleblowers.
This is only the first of many rulings against individuals, and for big business or monarchical behemoths. Welcome to the future. The only prayer we have of fixing this is to first get a Democratic majority in the Senate and House, THIS November. Don’t wait, get on the email list, call the democratic party in your county, or state. I am a registered unaffiliated voter, but I like Dr. Dean, and think he has a good plan for the long term, though I don’t always agree with the decisions made by leadership. The Democrats are our only hope to take back our country, so I can, once again, be proud to be an American.
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