http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=850

Washington, DC — The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower complaints filed by federal workers under the Superfund law and the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result, federal workers will lose protection against official retaliation for reporting cleanup failures, enforcement breakdowns or manipulation of science relating to contamination of water supplies or toxic pollution.

This latest action was buried in a footnote of a legal ruling issued by the U.S. Labor Department on March 30, 2007 in a whistleblower case involving a scientist from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It expands upon a ruling last year that federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act – a ruling based upon an unpublished Administration legal opinion.

The Bush administration legal stance is rooted in the doctrine of sovereign immunity based on the old English maxim that "The King Can Do No Wrong." Sovereign immunity is an absolute defense to any legal action.