Susan Ackerman v. State of Iowa, Iowa Workforce Development, Teresa Wahlert, Teresa Hillary, and Devon Lewis

WATERMAN, Justice (dissenting).

I respectfully dissent. This is the wrong case to decide whether contract employees can bring a common law claim for wrongful termination in violation of public policy, a tort specifically created to provide a remedy for at-will employees. Susan Ackerman is not a private contract employee; she is a state employee with both statutory remedies and contract remedies under a collective bargaining agreement. The majority ignores the dispositive threshold question of whether a government employee in Ackerman's position with statutory remedies can also sue under the…