United States Supreme Court

In this whistleblower case, plaintiff federal air marshal publicly disclosed that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had decided to cut costs by removing air marshals from certain flights. He was subsequently fired for disclosing sensitive security information without authorization. The Federal Circuit vacated the decision of the Merit Systems Protection Board finding that plaintiff was not entitled to whistleblower protection for the disclosures he made, which were specifically prohibited by TSA's promulgated regulation (49 CFR section 1520.7(j)). The judgment of the Federal Circuit is affirmed, where: 1) when Congress used the phrase "specifically prohibited by law" to create an exception to the protections of the Whistleblower statute (5 U.S.C. section 2302(b)(8)(A)) instead of "specifically prohibited by law, rule, or regulation," it meant to exclude rules and regulations, and as such, the TSA's regulations do not qualify as "law" for the purposes of section 2302(b)(8)(A); and 2) 49 U.S.C. section 114(r)(1), does not prohibit any disclosures itself, but instead only authorizes the Under Secretary to "prescribe regulations."

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/21/2015
• Published 01/21/2015

Judges

• Roberts

Court

• United States Supreme Court

Counsel