Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

The National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) today asked the three plaintiffs in the court case ACLU et al. v. Holder not to appeal the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissing their challenge to a key provision of the False Claims Act (FCA).   The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Government Accountability Project (GAP) and OMB Watch commenced the lawsuit seeking to have the provision of the law that permits whistleblowers to file their cases confidentially declared unconstitutional.

The Department of Justice and other whistleblower protection groups opposed the lawsuit.  The Appeals Court rejected the plaintiffs' claims on March 28, 2011. 

In a letter sent today to plaintiffs' counsel, the NWC warned that the challenge to the FCA threatened the right of whistleblowers to file claims confidentially and could  undermine America's "most effective whistleblower law."  The Letter further states:

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The U.S. Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board (ARB) (shown in a file photo) yesterday decided that the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) protects the employees of subsidiaries of publicly traded companies. The case is Carri Johnson v. Siemens Building Technologies, Inc., ARB Case No. 08-032 (ARB Mar. 31, 2011). This is the first case in which the Obama Era ARB requested amicus briefs. The prior administration had held that SOX would not protect employees of a subsidiary unless the employee could show that the subsidiary was acting as an agent of the publicly traded parent company. The National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) joined with the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) to to submit an amicus brief as requested by the ARB. In the meantime, Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 929A of Dodd-Frank amended SOX to make coverage of subsidiaries clear. NWC submitted a supplemental brief. The ARB's majority opinion, however, would not give direct effect to the Senate Report's declaration that Section 929A was a clarification rather than an amendment. (S. Rep. 111-176, p. 11, stated, "This clarification would eliminate a defense now raised in a substantial number of actions brought by whistleblowers under the statute.") Instead, the ARB finds that Section 929A is a reasonable interpretation of the 2002 SOX language, and consistent with its remedial purpose.

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