Whether an employer's professing motivating factor should override a whistleblower employee's reasonable belief of retaliation

QUESTION PRESENTED Whether an employer’s professed motivating factor in taking adverse action against a whistleblower employee under the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act should override a whistleblower employee’s reasonable belief that he has been subject to an adverse action because of protected activity. The lower courts’ subordination of the role of the employee’s reasonable belief in favor of an employer’s ability to justify an adverse action is especially troubling when the very purpose of these whistleblower protections is to encourage employees to make difficult choices by putting their careers on the line for the sake of safety. i