Higgins v. Kelley

OPINION OF THE COURT

ROSENN, Circuit Judge.

Generally, no one would question the right of any employer, particularly a public agency supported by taxpayer funds, to discharge an incompetent or inefficient employee. From time to time, however, employees of governmental agencies have elevated their voices in expressions of disapproval of inefficiencies, inadequacies and wastefulness in their employer’s operations. In today’s journalistic parlance, such employees have been objectively described from time to time as “whistle blowers.” Administrative agencies, on the other hand, often regard them…