An analyst working for the Library of Congress lost a first round in court when the judge refused to issue an order restoring the man to his job. The judge said however that his case was well-founded and that he was likely to prevail. -DB
A Congressional Research Service analyst who was fired from his job after writing articles critical of the Obama Administration’s plans to continue with military trials for terror suspects has lost the first round in a lawsuit he brought challenging his dismissal.
In November, Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor for military tribunals at Guantanamo, published a letter in the Washington Post and a Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing that military commissions were not a good way to punish alleged terrorists. Soon thereafter, he was informed he was being terminated by CRS effective today.
After a hearing yesterday, Judge Reggie Walton issued a ruling today refusing a temporary restraining order that would return Davis to his job. The judge said Davis and his lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union had not shown he would suffer irreparable harm if not reinstated immediately. However, Walton offered significant consolation to Davis by indicating that the central claim of his lawsuit is “well-founded” and that he is likely to win in the end.
“Regardless of the defendants’ contention to the contrary…it appears that the content of the plaintiff’s published opinions was one of the reasons, if not the primary reason, he was fired, i.e., because the plaintiff took a position on the prosecution of detainees being housed at the United States military’s Guantánamo Bay facility which the Congressional Research Service felt would call into question its impartially as to any policy recommendation it would make and any research it would conduct on that issue,” Walton wrote. “It cannot be questioned that government employees retain First Amendment rights.”
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