High court restricts whistleblower lawsuits

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

The Supreme Court on Tuesday placed new limits on whistleblower lawsuits claiming that local governments misused federal money.

The court voted 7-2 to hold that a technical, though important aspect of the federal False Claims Act applies to local governments. One section of the law prohibits whistleblower lawsuits when public disclosure of the alleged fraud occurs through a court hearing, a news report or congressional or administrative audit.

In an opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court ruled that the language on administrative audits refers to a report prepared by any government, not just a federal government document. The question had divided federal appeals courts.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote her first Supreme Court dissent, saying her colleagues "misread the statutory text" to limit whistleblower claims. Justice Stephen Breyer joined the dissenting opinion.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/03/30/national/w073016D36.DTL&tsp=1

[Democat]

1. Very interesting that Sotomayor sided with Breyer.

Still not sure what her overall impact will be, and I no nothing about this specific case, but good to see her willing to dissent and vote in the minority.