Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetIn an article titled, “Labor Issues Loom Large,” Human Resource Executive Online reports on the potential impact of President Obama’s 2011 budget on the enforcement of employment laws.  The article discusses the potential impact of Congress providing OSHA with additional funding for investigations and enforcement. While employment practitioners speculate that increased OSHA enforcement will have [...]

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TweetMonday, the DC Council approved the Whistleblower Protection Amendment Act of 2009, which strengthens the DC Whistleblower Protection Act (DC Code § 1-615.51 et seq.) and The Employees of District Contractors and Instrumentality Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 (DC Code § 2-223.01 et seq.).  The Whistleblower Protection Amendment Act of 2009 eliminates loopholes in the [...]

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TweetOn November 30, 2009, Judge Jeffrey S. White of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California partially denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss in Galli v. Pittsburg Unified School District.  The Court held that an employee’s wrongful termination constitutes an ongoing violation and that reinstatement is prospective injunctive relief from unconstitutional state [...]

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TweetOn October 22, 2009, a D.C. Superior Court awarded Colin Browne over $282,000 for his former employer’s violations of the D.C. Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA).  This is one of the highest awards under the D.C. WPA to date.  The award comes after a 5 day jury trial.  We first blogged about the verdict in Mr. Browne’s [...]

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TweetIn Thomas v. City of Blanchard, the Tenth Circuit held that the district court erred in concluding that Thomas’s speech was outside the scope of First Amendment protections under Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006).  Thomas, a former building code inspector for the City of Blanchard, alleged that he was terminated for blowing the [...]

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TweetIn Garcetti v. Ceballos, the Supreme Court held that whistleblowing by public employees in the course of performing their official job duties is not protected under the First Amendment as a matter of law.  As a result of the Garcetti decision, many public employee whistleblower retaliation claims have been dismissed on summary judgment.  In a [...]

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