With a push from the White House, expect a big stimulus to litigation in yet another area now that the Senate has agreed to drop its opposition to jury trials for federal government workers who say their adverse job action was in retaliation for blowing the whistle on some topic. Federal managers, reports AP, "worry about a spike in frivolous lawsuits filed by disgruntled or poor performing employees who use the new protections as a way to stave off legitimate disciplinary actions." (It's common for employment lawyers to advise clients to find something to blow the whistle on by way of enhancing their leverage in a dispute.) The whistleblower-advocacy lobby grumbles that the Senate version still excludes sensitive intelligence agencies from jury trials so as not to risk disclosure of national security information; a version in the House would knock down that constraint as well. [Washington Post, AP/Tri-City Herald]