Whistleblowers Are Sooo 20th Century

The Supreme Court does away with another one of those pesky freedoms the evildoers hate us for...

AP: High court trims whistleblower rights

The Supreme Court scaled back protections for government workers who blow the whistle on official misconduct Tuesday, a 5-4 decision in which new Justice Samuel Alito cast the deciding vote.

In a victory for the Bush administration, justices said the 20 million public employees do not have free-speech protections for what they say as part of their jobs.

Critics predicted the impact would be sweeping, from silencing police officers who fear retribution for reporting department corruption, to subduing federal employees who want to reveal problems with government hurricane preparedness or terrorist-related security...

A disturbing sign of things to come in the Roberts/Alito era...

SCOTUSblog warns that "This apparently means that employees may be disciplined for their official capacity speech, without any First Amendment scrutiny, and without regard to whether it touches on matters of 'public concern' -- a very significant doctrinal development."