Bush Declares Eco-Whistleblower Law Void for EPA Employees

[kpete]

Bush Declares Eco-Whistleblower Law Void for EPA Employees
Stealth Repeal of Clean Water Act Protections by Invoking "Sovereign Immunity"
By: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Published: Sep 4, 2006 at 08:40


The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.

Citing an "unpublished opinion of the Attorney General's Office of Legal Counsel," the Secretary of Labor's Administrative Review Board has ruled federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act. The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity which is based on the old English legal maxim that "The King Can Do No Wrong." It is an absolute defense to any legal action unless the "sovereign" consents to be sued.

The opinion and the ruling reverse nearly two decades of precedent. Approximately 170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies are affected by the loss of whistleblower rights.

more at:
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_41616.shtml

[NOLADEM]

1. I just threw up a little in my mouth

1/20/09 cannot come soon enough.

[TomInTib]

2. Absolutely outrageous. Totally sidestepping Congress.

Just like skipping a stone from one outrage to the next until the whole thing finally reaches a critical point and sinks.

[SpiralHawk]

What pigs these republicons are

They want to make massive profits, destroy the public treasures of America, and hide it all -- while prosecuting anyone who points it out.

low low low -- amoral in the extreme.

republicons are lacking in all honor.

[POAS]

3. Long live King George the First.

[rodeodance]

4. my gawd!

[orpupilofnature57]

5. James Watt doesn't seem as evil to me anymore . 'Dominion Theocracy'

[rodeodance]

6. "unpublished opinion of the Attorney General's Office of Legal Counsel,"

So, the AG office made a ruling, did not publish it, yet it is law!

"unpublished opinion of the Attorney General's Office of Legal Counsel,"

[mcscajun]

7. Two decades of precedent swept away at a stroke. what's 200?

This bastard has "decider" power and he can remake the government and the country in his own twisted image.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im-Peach-Ment Now!

[rodeodance]

9. "The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity " !!!

The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity which is based on the old English legal maxim that "The King Can Do No Wrong." It is an absolute defense to any legal action unless the "sovereign" consents to be sued.

[rodeodance]

8. and other new dump here:

Govt. asks to keep eavesdropping program

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 1, 5:40 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday asked a federal judge to delay enforcing her order for a halt to the government's warrantless communications surveillance program.
ADVERTISEMENT

The Justice Department argued that ending the intelligence-gathering program threatens "the gravest of harms to the government and to the American public" and leaves the country "more vulnerable to terrorist attack."

"We respectfully submit that this court should not override the national security judgment of the president and the nation's senior intelligence officers regarding the harm that would result" from the program's suspension, the government lawyers argued in a motion filed with the court.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled last month in Detroit that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and ordered that it be halted.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060901/ap_on_go_pr_wh/eavesdropping

[gratuitous]

10. The executive rewriting and interpreting laws

See anything the matter with this picture, all you constitutional originalists? Mr. Scalia? Mr. Thomas? Any of you other sock puppets on the Court? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[rodeodance]

11. but says Congress could easily end this abuse:

want to bet a nickle that this is not even on the radar screen?



"It is astonishing for the Bush administration to now suddenly claim that it is above the law," said PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein, who is handling Erickson's appeal of the Labor Secretary's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit based in Atlanta. "Congress could end this debate by simply declaring that it intends that the whistleblower protections of these anti-pollution laws apply to the federal government."

Congress is now debating Clean Water Act clarifications in the wake of a confusing U.S. Supreme Court decision (Rapanos et ux., et al. v. United States) handed down this June that muddies the extent of federal jurisdiction over wetlands. Unless Congress also resolves the Clean Water Act sovereign immunity question, scores of federal employee whistleblower cases may be dismissed or languish in limbo while the issue is litigated.

[rodeodance]

12. REC.

[rodeodance]

14. I am sending an email to my Senators right NOW.

[RC]

13. This sounds like something from the Onion

I can imagine the screaming if Clinton had tried something this.

[loves_dulcinea]

21. i wrote that to my repub senator.

rofl

[MountainLaurel]

15. This, combined with the closing of the EPA libraries

Will go a long way toward destroying any hope that information about environmental crimes will ever reach the American public.

:hide:

[OneBlueSky]

16. um . . . he can't do that . . . but will the Congress . . .

stand up to him? . . . my guess is no -- but stay tuned . . .

[sakabatou]

17. "EPA Whistle-blowers can eat Cake!"

[ContraBass Black]

18. Happy Labor Day!

[loves_dulcinea]

19. i just wrote my senator

i have to say that if Senator Lindsay Graham doesn't rise to this, then i have no hope until the next cycle.
i can't decide if Senator Jim Demint is a puppet of the fundamentalists or the plutocrats.
Representative Henry Brown sold his soul a looooooooooooooooong time ago. i have high hopes for Maata.

it sometimes sux to live in a state so red.

damn.

[annabanana]

20. "unpublished opinion of the Attorney General's Office"

Abu Gonzales won't let anyone annoy King George.

[rodeodance]

22. this is the LBN thread

.http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2493658