Editorial: Whistle isn’t all that blows

Thursday, June 1, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

First Amendment rights for government whistle-blowers took a hit earlier this week when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a California prosecutor who voiced concerns over the validity of a search warrant.

Richard Ceballos was a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles when he alerted his supervisors that it appeared false information was contained in an affidavit that was used to obtain a search warrant. Ceballos investigated the affidavit after a defense attorney had contacted him about the inaccuracies.

Ceballos followed administrative procedure by following up with a memo to his supervisors. But prosecution of the case went forward, and Ceballos claims he was demoted for speaking up.

In its 5-4 decision Tuesday, the court said that "when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline."

This decision undoubtedly will have a chilling effect, as government employees now know that exposing public waste, fraud or corruption leaves them open to being demoted or losing their jobs. Many are likely to think it better to simply turn a blind eye and say nothing.

Without government whistle-blowers, Americans may never have learned of prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib, the misinformation that led the nation into a war with Iraq or the role of insiders who illegally leaked the identity of a covert CIA operative.

And the Supreme Court's ruling comes during a time when testimony in litigation over the release of the painkiller Vioxx shows that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration epidemiologist claims he was harassed for revealing that 140,000 heart attacks and strokes had been associated with the drug.

According to the Associated Press, the 22-year FDA employee said agency workers who try to block a drug's approval or otherwise limit its marketability are "severely reprimanded, pressured, criticized and threatened."

And now, they have no First Amendment protections if they speak up.

The failure of the Supreme Court to fully protect the free speech rights of public employees who have the courage to reveal government corruption is disgraceful.