Retired Air Force Colonel Morris D. Davis was once the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay before resigning in 2008. A year later, he became one of the commission's biggest critics, writing in The Wall Street Journal that the Obama administration's decision to revive the Bush-era hybrid legal system for trying suspected terrorists would only "perpetuate the perception that Guantanamo and justice are mutually exclusive." He again criticized the decision in a letter to The Washington Post.
For that Morris says, he lost his job at the Congressional Research Service. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on his behalf, alleging that his superiors retaliated against him because they did not approve of his actions, even though Library of Congress regulations do not prohibit employees from commenting publicly on political matters as long as they make it clear that their opinions are their own. Yesterday, Judge Reggie B. Walton rejected motions to dismiss the case from the two defendants, saying that Morris had alleged a "violation of a clearly established constitutional right," and therefore, his former superiors could not claim qualified immunity.
"What Col. Davis wrote about was a subject of immense public interest -- our country's policy for dealing with individuals at Guantanamo," said Aden Fine, an attorney with the ACLU. "The decision will hopefully send a message to all govenrment employers that they can't just fire people because they express their personal opinions in public."
