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James Thomas Ryan v. Department of Defense

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2018-1524 · judgment February 13, 2019

Certiorari denied · October 7, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

James Ryan, the Petitioner, request this Petition for Writ of Certiorari be granted because the personnel action violated his constitutional right to due process, as well as the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA). Petitioner was not provided with notice and opportunity to respond to a specification within a personnel action that removed him from employment as a police officer in the federal service. Additionally, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) Administrative Judge did not analyze whether the Agency would have taken the personnel action absent disclosures protected by the \ • WPA. The case should have been remanded by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) to the MSPB.

  1. Can the government sustain a specification without giving the employee notice?

  2. Can the government overcome a whistleblower defense without an objective test?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
James Ryan

For respondent
Noel John Francisco
Jones Day

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Oct 07 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Aug 28 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.
  3. Aug 21 2019
    Waiver of right of respondent Department of Defense to respond filed.
  4. Jul 26 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 30, 2019)