Supreme Court Extends Whistle-Blower Protections to Contractors
Such as law firms and accountants
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that private contractors are entitled to federal whistle-blower protection when they expose fraud at public companies.
The 6-3 decision, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was a victory for private employees who advised or managed Fidelity mutual funds, but it's sure to have a broader impact in the future.
Mutual funds often have no employees, so the court reasoned that whistle-blower protections enacted by Congress after the Enron scandal — in what became known as the Sarbanes-Oxley law — were intended to extend to contractors such as law firms and accountants.
"Based on the statutory text, and the mischief to which Congress was responding, we hold that (the law) shelters employees of private contractors that serve public companies," Ginsburg said in announcing her opinion from the bench.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?