Consider the following scenarios. Try to apply these legal standards to the following news events. If these whistleblowers sued, would they succeed in their free speech claims?

• Richard H. Carmona served as surgeon general during the Bush administration from 2002–2006. In 2007, he testified to a congressional committee investigating the extent to which scientific information was being distorted by political considerations. Dr. Carmona told lawmakers that, while he was surgeon general, top Bush administration officials had repeatedly attempted to dilute or suppress important public health reports for political reasons. For example, although he was not permitted to mention stem cells, contraception, sex education, or global health issues in his speeches, he was required to mention President Bush three times on each page of every speech he gave. Suppose Dr.

Carmona had complained to officials in the Department of Health and Human Services before his tenure ended—and was removed from his position in retaliation.

• On February 1, 2003, as it was making its re-entry to land, the Columbia space shuttle burst into flame and broke apart over Texas. All 11 astronauts were killed. Two weeks later, scientists learned that foam tiles had broken away from the spacecraft, striking its left wing. A few NASA engineers strongly believed that images of the resultant damage should be created and analyzed. They met with institutional resistance, a “bureaucratic dead end,” and the pictures were never taken. Suppose they had persisted in their requests, pressed their superiors, and then been fired.26

• For 20 years Russell Tice worked at the National Security Agency on mass surveillance, known as “black world” operations. In January 2006 he decided to go to ABC News, claiming some of the government’s secret operations since 9/11 were illegal, with millions of phone calls tapped. This contradicted President Bush’s comments that he had authorized the NSA to intercept only the communications of people with known links to terror organizations: “We’re not trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.” But Tice told ABC: “The mentality was, ‘We need to get these guys, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to get them.’” Suppose the Bush administration had retaliated against Tice.

• Carlos Blackman worked for the New York Transit Authority as a car inspector at the 240th Street maintenance shop. A union member and outspoken on many issues, including employee heath and safety, he was elected local Union Chairman in 2003. Some months later, a disgruntled employee, who had been fired from his position as a car cleaner, shot and killed two of his former supervisors. In a conversation the first day at work after the murders, Blackman remarked, “I hate to say this, but those two guys deserve what they got for getting the [employee-turned-murderer] fired.” At this point, one of Blackman’s co-workers turned to him and asked, “If you lost your livelihood, what would you do?” Blackman essentially repeated himself: “[T]hose two scumbags deserved what they got.” The Transit Authority filed a disciplinary action against him.