in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On September 16, 2008, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled that the Transportation Security Administration was within its authority to retroactively classify the information as SSI, but found that MacLean could contest his termination before the MSPB under the authority of the Whistleblower Protection Act by arguing that he had a "good-faith belief" that the information did not qualify as "sensitive security information." On June 22, 2009, a full MSPB panel declared that MacLean was not protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act. On May 12, 2010, MSPB administrative law judge Franklin M. Kang issued an Initial Decision to uphold MacLean's removal. MacLean appealed the decision to a 3-member appellate MSPB panel in Washington DC, but on July 25, 2011, the full panel denied all of MacLean's Whistleblower Protection Act defenses and affirmed the TSA's decision to terminate him. Appellate and Supreme Court decisions In 2013, a unanimous panel of three United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit judges ruled in favor of MacLean, instructing the MSPB to reassess whether his disclosure qualified for whistleblower protection. The federal government appealed the Federal Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court of the United States. In January 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the Federal Circuit's decision, ruling that MacLean could pursue a whistleblower defense before the MSPB. Reinstatement and later dismissal In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, the MSPB remanded McLean's case back to judge Kang for a new hearing, and on May 8, 2015, MacLean was retroactively reinstated by the Department of Homeland Security. Kang formally designated MacLean a whistleblower in November 2015. In March 2019 MacLean was fired again by the TSA, on the basis of allegations including inappropriate posts on a message board for air marshals and lying about how he obtained information about potential witnesses against him. References American whistleblowers Sky marshals American civil servants United States Air Force airmen People from California 1970 births Living people United States Border Patrol agents