FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 13, 2026
Contact: Joanna Citron Day, (240) 247-3081, [email protected]
Newly released EPA Documents Support Employees Free Speech Rights
Fired EPA Employees Targeted for Exercising Constitutional Rights
Washington, DC — Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials concluded that employees who signed an open dissent letter were exercising their constitutional rights and did not violate any law or agency policy, according to documents released this week by E&E News.
E&E News reports that before signing the public “Declaration of Dissent” letter, EPA employees sought advice from their agency ethics officials about whether signing the letter in their personal capacities raised any ethics concerns. Based on internal EPA emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, E&E News reports that the agency’s ethics officials concluded that signing the dissent letter raised no ethics or Hatch Act concerns and that employees who signed the letter in their personal capacity and on their own time were exercising their First Amendment rights.
Despite that clear guidance, at least 14 employees who signed the dissent letter were fired. Some of those former employees are challenging their termination, arguing that these firings were unlawful because they punished protected First Amendment speech and constituted illegal retaliation for such protected speech.
“This new evidence further supports our contention that EPA has used this open letter of dissent to try to silence its own workforce and set an example for other employees who may want to raise public issues of concern or report wrongdoing,” said Joanna Citron Day, PEER’s General Counsel, who is representing several of the terminated employees who signed the Declaration of Dissent.
“Unfortunately, the e-mails released show that the current administration continues to target federal employees even though these employees were properly exercising their rights under the First Amendment,” said Josh Klinger, from Minahan Muther & Klinger, who is representing several other of the terminated employees who signed the Declaration of Dissent.
The fired employees were among approximately 160 EPA employees who publicly signed a June 30, 2025, open letter to Administrator Lee Zeldin and members of Congress protesting the politization of science at EPA and warning that the agency’s actions under this administration were endangering public health and the environment.
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Read the EPA Emails Obtained by E&E News
Learn More the Fired Employees Challenge to Their Firings
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment. We are a service organization for environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. We work with current and former federal, state, local and tribal employees.
