Tom Devine, Government Accountability Project Legal Director and '80 alum, was quoted in Businessweek on a proposed rule by President Obama that would allow federal agencies to fire employees without appeal if their work has some tie to national security. Potentially thousands of positions would be covered and government watchdog groups say it may provide a new way to crack down on leaks by government workers.

"There is so much secrecy, and employees have so few rights already in the national security bureaucracy,” said Tom Devine. "Most of our whistle-blowers are national security professionals,” Devine said. "If they get rid of the civil service system for those jobs, we’re not just going to be vulnerable to a national security spoils system -- we’ll have it.”