Whistleblower Protections Limited

Disclosure of publicly known information concerning alleged errors in an adjudicative process do not constitute a protected disclosure under the Whistleblower Protection Act and do not carry the law’s protections against retaliation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held. In its decision (No. 01-3028) the court said the disclosures were “merely legal arguments” concerning alleged errors by the Office of Personnel Management in connection with his own application for retirement benefits and by OPM in defending its action before the Merit Systems Protection Board. “This is simply not the type of disclosure the WPA was designed to protect. The WPA was not designed to afford an opportunity to collaterally attack the results of earlier litigation brought by the appellant, where the errors, if any, were apparent on the face of the earlier decision and were publicly known,” the court held.