On Tuesday, the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision which extends whistleblower protections to employees of companies who are subcontractors for publicly traded companies. The dissenting justices held that the ruling could give protections far beyond the employees of non-publicly traded companies, possibly to extreme examples of subcontracting like babysitters. The ruling, based on an interpretation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, expands the reach of the law from about 5,000 to potentially millions of companies. The majority interpretation derives much of its resolve from the Enron scandal, which Congress was responding to when writing the laws, where consultants of the firm were retaliated against when they brought the firm?s fraud to managers? attention.
See "UPDATE 3-U.S. justices extend employee whistleblower protections", Lawrence Hurley, Reuters, March 4, 2014