The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington has dismissed on summary judgment whistleblower claims brought by two former compliance auditors of the Boeing Company, Inc.

The Boeing employees were auditors who performed testing on IT controls at the company. The tests being performed by the auditors were undertaken in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s mandate that publicly traded companies review their controls over financial reporting. After making several complaints to supervisors about perceived deficiencies, the auditors provided information about the alleged deficiencies to a reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The auditors were fired soon thereafter.

The court ruled that it iss clear that leaking information to the media is not protected activity under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and Boeing was within its rights to terminate the auditors on this ground.