Fedweek

Federal employees wishing to appeal MSPB decisions in cases involving alleged whistleblower retaliation now may file those challenges only in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, MSPB has said, since a pilot program of allowing appeals to any federal appeals court has lapsed.

The so-called “all circuit review” authority was contained in a 2012 law that expanded protections for whistleblowers in several ways; those provisions in part overturned what sponsors called overly restrictive precedent that the Federal Circuit had set over the years regarding what constitutes protected whistleblowing. The authority to appeal to other courts lapsed December 27, an MSPB notice said, and thus the appeals must now again go only to the Federal Circuit.

The House last year passed HR-2229, to make permanent the authority to appeal to other circuit courts but the Senate has not acted.