Posted by: Melville Johnson, P.C.
April 16, 2008
Topic: Whistleblower
The Attorneys at Melville Johnson, P.C. can provide this type of legal representation for you:
The United Stats Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently handed a victory to a government whistleblower in Chambers v. Department of the Interior. Ms. Teresa Chambers, the Chief of the U.S. Park Police at the time, told a Washington Post reporter that a 2003 decision not to increase the Park Police budget was increasing the risks to public health and safety, since it would likely result in inadequate police protection on park land within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and around the national icons such as the Washington Monument. After making this disclosure, Ms. Chambers was fired.
The Merit System Protection Board upheld her termination on grounds that her statements were a "classic policy disagreement." In making its ruling, the board determined that the Whistleblower Protection Act only protected the whistleblower if the subject of the disclosure was not "debatable among reasonable people."
The Federal Circuit, in reversing the Merit System Protection Board, determined that the board had applied an incorrect standard relating to the disclosure of a risk to the public safety, by blending the concepts of gross mismanagement and a risk to public safety.
The Federal Circuit stated that while Ms. Chambers expressed disagreement with a policy decision, the choice not to increase the budget, she also disclosed her reasonable belief of danger to public safety that may have resulted from that decision.
This article is largely based on a Legal Times article written by Debra S. Katz and Nicole J. Williams on April 7, 2008.
