We've been wondering whether whistleblowers will fare any better with the new administration. It's widely known that under Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers faired poorly thanks to a very narrow interpretation of who is covered by OSHA. We'll see if OSHA changes its tune, but in the meantime, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a suit by two IPO lawyers. The husband-wife team, the Van Asdales, charged they were fired in retaliation for questioning the value of patents, in the face of strong performance reviews. 

Judge Jay Bybee wrote the unanimous opinion and noted: "It is not critical to the Van Asdales' claim that they prove that Anchor officials actually engaged in fraud in connection with the merger; rather the Van Asdales only need show that they reasonably believed there might be fraud and were fired for even suggesting further inquiry." What's interesting is that Bybee was a staunch cog in the Bush Administration's legal machinery. He generated a lot of controversy for some memos in support of various interrogation tactics. 

For more:
- here's the ABA Journal article

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