[4] Oregon Judge Dismisses FPC Staffers' Lawsuit

A federal judge in Oregon has dismissed a lawsuit filed by staffers of the Fish Passage Center against BPA and its administrator, Steve Wright.

The plaintiffs claimed their rights under the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution had been violated when BPA didn't renew a contract between the FPC and BPA in retaliation for publishing data and information used by plaintiff environmental and fishing groups in litigation that added more spill to hydro operations.

The FPC staffers also claimed that their reputations had been damaged "as a result of the defendants' reliance on unsupported allegations unfairly criticizing plaintiffs' work."

The suit included BPA Administrator Wright as a defendant, claiming that he prevented plaintiffs from testifying before the court and from associating with persons and associations who were witnesses before the court.

Judge Ancer Haggerty dismissed plaintiffs' claims, siding with BPA and Wright's argument that all claims brought against Bonneville belonged in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the claims against Wright, the judge said, plaintiffs' speech was not entitled to constitutional protection, as the Supreme Court recently ruled. He also found that Wright's statements about scientific neutrality at the FPC did not support plaintiffs' claims, and dismissed their allegations.

Defendants also argued that since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the contract had to be reinstated, no one lost his or her job, hence all claims for relief were moot. The judge agreed with that as well.

"Without the contract's expiration," Haggerty said in his opinion, "no controversy over which this court can exercise its judicial power can be said to presently exist." -B. R.

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