Opinion ID: 2830177
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Legal Background and Statutory Framework

Text: The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 established statutory protections to encourage federal employees to disclose government illegality, waste, fraud, and abuse; and also established the Merit Systems Protection Board as an independent agency to adjudicate these claims. Pub. L. No. 95-454, §§ 101, 202, 92 Stat. 1111, 1113–14, 1121–31. Congress later passed the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) of 1989, Pub. L. No. 101-12, 103 Stat. 16. The WPA proscribes retaliation against a federal employee who discloses what the employee reasonably believes evidences a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. See 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(8). From its inception in 1982 until recently, the Federal Circuit exercised exclusive jurisdiction over petitions for review of MSPB adjudications that involved only federal-employee whistleblower claims. King v. Dep’t of the Army, 2 Case: 14-60645 Document: 00513166776 Page: 3 Date Filed: 08/24/2015 No. 14-60645 570 F. App’x 863, 864 (11th Cir. 2014) (per curiam). These claims were directly appealable to the Federal Circuit and reviewed for arbitrariness or capriciousness and for substantial evidence. Id. at 865; see also 5 U.S.C. § 7703(c). Concerned that the Federal Circuit and the MSPB had interpreted the WPA’s definition of protected disclosures too narrowly, Congress amended the statute in 1994. See Act of Oct. 29, 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-424, 108 Stat. 4361; S. Rep. No. 103-358, at 8–10 (1994) (criticizing the Federal Circuit’s “construction of the legislative history” and declaring that “the Board and the courts should not erect barriers to disclosures which will limit the necessary flow of information from employees who have knowledge of government wrongdoing”). In 2012, Congress again significantly amended the WPA through the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) to address similar concerns. This time, to encourage diverse appellate review—which leads to circuit splits (facilitating Supreme Court review), S. Rep. No. 112-155, at 11 (2012)—Congress also expanded judicial review to all circuits, with this provision of the law scheduled to “sunset” five years later, 5 U.S.C. § 7703(b)(1)(B); see also All Circuit Review Extension Act, Pub. L. No. 113-170, 128 Stat. 1894 (extending the sunset of all-circuit review to five years instead of two years after enactment).