Scotus, Potus, and Robert MacLean...

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Produced by: 
KBOO
Program:: 
Air date: 
Thu, 02/12/2015 - 10:00am to 10:15am
Interview with Robert MacLean

On your mark..Get set…BLOW!
Because the Supreme Court this week ruled on the wide of Federal Air Marshall Robert Maclean.  What this means for you and I is simply this:  it is no longer legal for lawmakers to make laws after the fact.  If fyou reveal a serious breach of workplace safety, for example, it is no longer legal for a law to suddenly appear making your actions illegal.
And we have Robert Maclean to thank.
This is a major  victory in its implications for future whistleblower cases. The Court’s decision in Department of Homeland Security v. Robert MacLean curtails the government’s manipulation of pseudo-classified information to punish whistleblowers, and strengthens the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA).
 
In July 2003, TSA alerted all marshals of a possible hijacking plot. Soon after, TSA sent an unclassified, open-air text message to marshals’ cell phones canceling several months of missions to save on hotel costs. Fearing such cancellations in the midst of a hijacking alert created a danger to the flying public, veteran Air Marshal Robert MacLean tried to get TSA to change its decision.
 
After hitting a dead end, MacLean spoke anonymously to MSNBC, who published a critical story. Only 24 hours later, and after 11 members of Congress voiced concern, TSA reversed itself, putting marshals back on the flights. A year later, MacLean appeared on TV in disguise to criticize agency policies he felt made it easier for passengers to recognize undercover marshals. The TSA recognized MacLean’s voice and discovered he had also released the unclassified 2003 text message. He was fired in April 2006.
 
MacLean discovered that months after firing him, TSA had retroactively classified as “security sensitive information” (SSI) the unclassified text message he had leaked. SSI is a designation created by TSA via administrative memo, and had no basis in law. TSA decided nonetheless that leaking a retroactively SSI-classified document was cause enough to fire a federal worker. MacLean fought back.

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