The lead editorial in
Nature vol 443 p 121 discloses another instance of the arrogant power grab by the Bush Administration.
...the Bush administration has reversed two decades of precedent and declared that important whistleblower protections in the Clean Water Act do not apply to federal workers.
This change in interpretation was made more than a year ago by Steven Bradbury, acting assistant attorney-general in the department's Office of Legal Counsel.
...what is particularly disturbing about this change is the way it was brought in under the radar, remaining unpublished for 12 months and unknown to the federal workers potentially affected by it. It only became public last week, when the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility released a letter from Bradbury, which it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act after stumbling upon a reference to it in a whistleblower complaint.
As the editorial notes:
This is hardly a fitting approach to jurisprudence in a purportedly open and democratic society
Well guess what, the Bush admin does not advocate an open and democratic society. It wants a society of, by and for the plutocrats. No questions asked by the peons, thank you very much.
The Environmental News Service has the story from September 5, 2006.
Citing an "unpublished opinion of the [Attorney General's] Office of Legal Counsel," the Secretary of Labor's Administrative Review Board has ruled federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act, the documents reveal.
The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity that is based on the old English legal maxim that The King Can Do No Wrong. It is an absolute defense to any legal action unless the sovereign consents to be sued.
As noted in Environmental News:
These actions arose in the case of Sharyn Erickson, an EPA employee who had reported problems with agency contracts for toxic cleanups. After conducting a hearing, an administrative law judge called EPA's conduct "reprehensible" and awarded Erickson $225,000 in punitive damages, but Labor Secretary Elaine Chao overturned that ruling.
"It is astonishing for the Bush administration to now suddenly claim that it is above the law," said PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein, who is handling Erickson's appeal of the Labor Secretary's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit based in Atlanta.
Above the law? Of course. They have maintained that all along.
So, here is another appeal to get on the phones and ring up members of the Water Resources and Environment Sub Committee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, chaired by John Duncan (R-TN) Chairman.
Contact the members of the subcommittee and lobby them for inclusion of the US Government in the definition of `person' in the Act's list of employers from whom whistleblowers may seek redress.
Thanks
And now, for an extended list (really extended list) of Bush Administration anti-environmental acts, see the diary by ckerst entitles Bush the Environmentalist.