Human Rights Activists Take Hard Line on Leader of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel

CROWN POINT, Ind. - Aug. 2, 2016 - PRLog -- Opt IN USA is described as a grassroots U.S. foreign policy reform, judicial accountability, and international human rights campaign.  So why are its representatives writing U.S. Senator Charles Grassley as Chairman, and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden as Vice-Chairman of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus?  Short answer: because of Carolyn Lerner, Special Counsel of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

On behalf of Opt IN USA, attorney Zena Crenshaw-Logal* and her fellow Opt IN USA Co-Administrator Dr. Andrew D. Jackson ask Senators Grassley and Wyden to forestall Lerner's nomination for a second five year term as Special Counsel, at least until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (FCCA) rules in Carson v. Merit Systems Protection Board, docket no. 2015-3135;-3211.  Jackson claimed in an April 28, 2016 press release that he and other Opt IN USA supporters "transformed the briefing in (that) consolidated appeal of two (2) U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) decisions into a referendum on that quasi-judicial agency, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), America's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)".

Crenshaw-Logal and Jackson elaborate for Senators Grassely and Wyden on "a synergy of quiescent lawyers and judges, subdued by the prospect of retaliatory professional discipline; ineffective federal agencies such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Special Counsel; America's beleaguered Public Defender system; the stealth but distinct oppression and mental torture attendant to (persistent U.S. legal system abuse); undue insulation of U.S. government officials from accountability; and the inability of average Americans to enforce U.S. international human rights and anti-torture treaties, even after domestic avenues of relief prove ineffective."

Having successfully filed amici briefs in the Carson appeal, Crenshaw-Logal and Jackson interject, "OSC simply claims that regardless of whether it complied with its non-discretionary statutory duties to protect Mr. Carson, such act(s) and/or omission(s) did not cause a 'significant change in working conditions,' so he has no recourse."  They add, "(b)y making such an argument to a federal court in a whistleblower reprisal appeal, we submit that Lerner disqualifies herself from further consideration for a second term as U.S. Special Counsel."

Opt IN USA's letter of August 2, 2016 to Senators Grassely and Wyden  is accessible online @ https://www.dropbox.com/s/tnyxnxn6c5y5dt3/online_Hold%20R...

The campaign's April 2016 press release on the Carson appeal is accessible @ https://www.prlog.org/12553910-four-federal-workforce-age...