From Today’s Washington Post:
The Supreme Court made it harder Tuesday for whistle-blowers to share in the proceeds from fraud lawsuits against government contractors.
The court ruled 6-2 that James Stone, an 81-year-old retired engineer, may not collect a penny for his role in exposing fraud at the now-closed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant northwest of Denver.
Writing for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia said Stone was not an original source of the information that resulted in Rockwell International, now part of aerospace giant Boeing Co., being ordered to pay the government nearly $4.2 million for fraud connected with environmental cleanup at the Rocky Flats plant.
Rockwell must pay the entire penalty anyway. The only question before the court was whether Stone would get his cut.
At first read this may appear as a bad ruling, but further analysis of it proves otherwise. Sure the people who whistle blow can’t get money, but that now means whistle blowers should be taken more seriously. If they are risking their jobs and careers to expose wrong-doing, then we must consider that the facts they are laying out are truthful.