Empower public employees with right to refuse illegal orders

Ahealthy democratic government is a living body composed of numerous cells — its many employees at all levels — organized into the different parts and systems which allow it to carry out well its essential functions for the citizens it serves.

When a government is infected by corruption, other criminal intent, or the violation of its founding principles and practices, the sicknesses in society which result hurt individuals, groups of citizens, and the entire environment in which the government operates. And the government itself is weakened, incapable of best-serving constituents and riven with workers’ fears, resentments, and mistrust.

Laws establishing procedures and protections for government whistleblowers who report illicit activity they’ve witnessed play an important role in exposing wrongdoing in government and help deter higher-ups from ordering illegal activities because they might end up being exposed. But when a whistleblower report is confidentially filed, the wrongdoing it documents has already begun or been completed. Wouldn’t it be better if such bad behavior and its damaging results could be prevented from ever occurring?

All members of the U.S. armed forces are required, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to refuse any unlawful order. Because their actions can cause such deadly destruction, they are trained rigorously and repeatedly to distinguish between lawful and unlawful orders and disobey the latter.

I believe the time has come for governments throughout our nation to adopt measures by which all oath-taking and other public employees are informed, encouraged, and supported to refuse any orders which would cause them to break the law or otherwise violate their oath of office. Refuser protection statutes would offer employees ways to check whether an order was legal and wouldn’t require them to go against their oath. They would also educate employees about how to refuse unlawful or otherwise oath-breaking orders. Finally, they would protect workers who refuse unlawful orders from firing and other punishment. Such laws would, in a very real sense, help inoculate subordinates in all chains of command against becoming ‘infected’ by having to break the law or violate their state and/or federal constitution by following a wrongful command.

With endorsement by state Senator Steve Fenberg and state Rep. Edie Hooton, and with assistance from Rep. Jonathan Singer, Sworn to Refuse, a Denver-area non-partisan citizen organization, is now actively working for the establishment of refuser protection law for all Colorado state employees. I am reaching out to Gov. Jared Polis and state legislators on all sides of the aisle, requesting that refuser protection be enacted as soon as possible by executive order and legislation be introduced and passed in the General Assembly. I have also begun contacting Colorado’s congressional representatives to ask that they pursue similar legislation in Washington, D.C.

I urge all residents of Colorado to support our initiative and let their elected and appointed government members know of that support. I also encourage additional legislators and other concerned individuals and organizations to add their formal endorsement. Together, we’ll help make sure Colorado’s state workers can do their jobs knowing they have the right and responsibility to do right by refusing to do wrong.