EPA Suspensions Raise Concern About Workers’ Free Speech Rights

The suspension of 139 Environmental Protection Agency employees for criticizing the Trump administration has set up a high-stakes test of the government’s tolerance for dissent inside the federal workforce.

The EPA is expected to decide as early as Thursday what to do with the workers, who were placed on administrative leave this month after signing a letter alleging President Donald Trump and Administrator Lee Zeldin politicized the agency and undermined its mission.

Free speech advocates and attorneys for federal workers say the suspensions likely violate whistleblower laws and the First Amendment, although the government hasn’t specified which policy the workers ...