Bush's Supreme Court Rallies Round The King

Bush's Supreme Court rolls over for the Bush Government:

The Supreme Court yesterday bolstered the government's power to discipline public employees who make charges of official misconduct, ruling that the First Amendment does not protect those who blow the whistle in the course of their official duties.

By a vote of 5 to 4, the court ruled that the Los Angeles County district attorney's office did not violate prosecutor Richard Ceballos's freedom of speech by allegedly demoting him after he wrote to supervisors charging that a sheriff's deputy had lied to get a search warrant.

Dissenters on the court, civil libertarians and public-employee unions said the ruling, which extends to all of the nation's public employees, could deter government workers from going to their bosses with evidence of corruption or ineptitude.

The Bush Five: Anthony M. Kennedy, John G. Roberts Jr., Antonio Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.