Whistleblowing protections and judicial activism in the US Supreme Court

Whistleblowing is a contested and sometimes controversial instrument of regulation, not only across countries, but also within individual jurisdictions, individual industries and even within individual courts. This paper focuses on whistleblower protection issues in a US context. First, it discusses how the US government and its agencies have sought to stimulate the incidence and effect of whistleblowing through bounty programmes. The paper then focuses on a March 2014 US Supreme Court decision, Lawson et al v FMR LLC et al. Just like whistleblowing as an activity, that decision was contested (6:3), but its ramifications may see obligatory protections for whistleblowers extended significantly