Valiant Integrated Defeats Arabic Linguist’s Retaliation Appeal

A former Arabic linguist for Valiant Integrated Services LLC on Tuesday lost her bid to revive a lawsuit alleging that the company violated a whistleblower protection provision in a defense law by firing her for reporting an assault by another Valiant employee.

A district court properly rejected Sana Kappouta’s Defense Contractor Whistleblower Protection Act claim because the shove—which occurred after work hours at a bar at the US embassy in Iraq—didn’t qualify as a violation of law requiring whistleblower protection, a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed.

Kappouta’s complaint failed to allege a ...