Say Anything Blog

From The New York Times, ironically enough,

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for government employees to file lawsuits claiming they were retaliated against for going public with allegations of official misconduct.

By a 5-4 vote, justices said the nation's 20 million public employees do not have carte blanche free speech rights to disclose government's inner-workings. New Justice Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court's majority, said the First Amendment does not protect "every statement a public employee makes in the course of doing his or her job."

Several weeks ago, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez made it known that major criminal investigations into leaks of highly classified NSA and CIA information to both the NYT and WaPo are on-going. Last week, he indicated that criminal prosecution of the NYT for publishing the leaked information is likely.

The Times has declared its support for those doing the leaking, referring to them as “whistle-blowers,” although they certainly do not fit that definition legally. Today’s Supreme Court ruling further limits the “whistle-blower” status claims of those leaking highly classified defense and intelligence information.

Expect the criminal prosecutions to go forward.