1. Should the federal appeals court deny Broom and Miller’s appeal and enforce the decision of the state district court finding upholding the discharge of the two whistleblowers? Explain your reasoning. Janet Broom and Darla Miller were employed as a certified medication aide and cook, respectively, at the employer’s residential care facility located in Norman, Oklahoma. Both employees suspected another employee of stealing and using drugs intended for use by residents of the facility from the facility’s medication room.

Broom and Miller decided to report the suspected employee based on their observation that she had falsified medical drug log books to conceal her theft from facility managers.

The facility’s Employee Handbook clearly outlined a procedure employees were to follow when making complaints involving other employees.

The Employee Handbook called for the initial complaint to be filed with the accused employee’s immediate supervisor. Because the two employees making the complaint believed that the immediate supervisor in this case, Sarah Dutton, was a close personal friend of the accused, Broom and Miller chose to make their complaint to another manager, who was the medication consultant at the facility.

Upon learning of the complaint from the medication consultant, supervisor Dutton discharged Broom and Miller for ‘‘not following the proper chain of command in raising an issue about another employee.’’ Both Broom and Miller are nonunion employees unrepresented by a union. After being discharged, Broom and Miller’s only recourse was to file a wrongful discharge state court claim, arguing that they were engaged in internal whistleblowing activity and thus protected from discharge as a matter of Oklahoma public policy.