Home Media Center News Releases

Washington—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today expressed serious concerns about a Supreme Court decision eliminating the First Amendment protection of speech by public employees made “pursuant to” their duties.

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), said the decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, decided by a five-member majority, will have a chilling effect on the ability of public employees at all levels of government to speak out on matters of public interest in work-related statements made in the course of their duties. The decision heightens the urgency and the need for reform of whistleblower protection laws for federal employees, the NTEU leader said.

“The loss of constitutional protection may have a serious impact on employees’ willingness to bring important issues of abuse, waste or misconduct to light,” Kelley said. “This is especially troubling because federal employee whistleblower safeguards have been significantly diminished by a series of judicial decisions.”

NTEU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the California case last July, arguing that failing to protect free speech under these circumstances would seriously impede the ability of government workers to protect the public interest by speaking out on issues dealing both with policy questions and matters of possible wrongdoing.

NTEU’s position in this matter reflects the union’s long-standing fight in the Supreme Court and elsewhere to protect and advance the free speech rights of federal employees.

The case at hand arose when an assistant district attorney in Los Angeles wrote a memo to his superiors outlining his concerns about the validity of a search warrant. When he declined to minimize his concerns by rewriting the memo, the employee suffered workplace retaliation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in the employee’s favor, but the district attorney’s office appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.

The majority’s test that speech made “pursuant to [an employee’s] duties” is not protected will not serve to reduce litigation, the NTEU leader said. “There will inevitably be litigation over the nature of the employee’s duties and whether the speech is pursuant to those duties or merely ‘related to’ those duties,” Kelley stated.

She noted that scientists at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Food and Drug Administration are examples of employees whose duties are not easily defined and who may be moved to raise important matters of public concern.

“When the voices of dissenting scientists, doctors, lawyers, financial or law enforcement professionals serving the public are silenced, the American people will ultimately suffer,” Kelley said.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.