The opportunity to seek justice has been a long time coming for whistleblower Helen Armstrong.

Over eight long years, she survived cancer, a heart stent transplant, the loss of a job she held for more than two decades, and the immense pressure of fighting an uphill legal battle.

Thanks to Thursday’s ruling by the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the former Las Vegas medical-office supervisor will at last get the chance to have her case heard.

In a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel, the federal appeals court restored most of Armstrong’s lawsuit against four Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration (NOSHA) officials, whom she accused of exposing her identity as a whistleblower and conspiring with her employer to derail her workplace retaliation complaint after she was fired.

Armstrong filed a lawsuit in 2017 naming former NOSHA Director and current Director of the Department of Business and Industry Terry Reynolds, former NOSHA Chief Administrator Jess Lankford, and NOSHA Chief Investigator Lara Pellegrini. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2020 after a determination that Armstrong’s 23-year at-will employee status at Ear Nose and Throat Associates was not constitutionally protected.

The appeals court disagreed, paving the way for the case to be refiled in U.S. District Court. Following this week’s development, a spokesman for the state attorney general said the office was “evaluating the decision and determining any next steps.”

“For the first time since Helen tried to hold her doctor’s office accountable for failing to meet basic safety standards of safety, she finally won an important victory,” her attorney and Whistleblower Aid founder John Tye said in an interview, adding in a statement, “Today’s opinion is a strong affirmation that even for ‘at-will’ employees, the U.S. Constitution provides whistleblowers with important legal protections.”

The appeals court expressed no opinion on the facts of the case, only the application of the law in substantially affirming Armstrong’s appeal, which was argued by attorney Phil Spector.

“This is an important ruling for my client, and for the countless other whistleblowers who expose private or public wrongdoing, often at great personal risk,” Spector said. “This decision affirms that government officials investigating whistleblower claims do not operate in a ‘law-free’ zone, and they will be held to account when they violate whistleblowers’ rights.”

Armstrong’s concerns began 2013 after she said she observed medical office personnel using contaminated syringes and selling expired medication. After informing management of the unsafe practice, she said nothing changed.

In February 2014, she filed her first whistleblower complaint with NOSHA. An investigation resulted in citations and fines, but instead of paying them Armstrong alleges her employer chose to retaliate against her. She lost her position as a supervisor.

She filed a second whistleblower complaint on May 30, 2014, which resulted in further retaliation. Suffering from cancer and fearing for the loss of her job and her health insurance, she withdrew her complaint.

When the workplace harassment continued, after learning that a NOSHA official was responsible for disclosing her whistleblower status, on Aug. 14, 2014 Armstrong filed a third complaint with NOSHA, which the court wrote, “scuttled any investigation.” She was terminated on Nov. 17.

“The government officials had a responsibility to keep her complaint confidential, but instead they notified the doctor’s office in a letter that she had withdrawn her whistleblower complaint with OSHA,” Tye said. “In fact, it’s government officials who triggered the retaliation against her. As soon as her colleagues found out she was a whistleblower they started filing frivolous complaints against her. In the months after she became a whistleblower, she received the first of 58 complaints from her colleagues, and she’d never had any in the 20 years before.”

NOSHA reopened its investigation in 2015, but when an investigator attempted to serve a document subpoena on the medical office, it’s alleged by Armstrong that his request was blocked by Lankford and George.

On Thursday, Tye described his client as “thrilled. She’s been at this for many years at this point. This is the first real step in the right direction.”

In a brief statement following the decision Armstrong said, “I told OSHA about the awful things I saw at my job, but I was fired for doing the right thing. And then OSHA officials worked with my employer to shut down my whistleblower claims. This experience has been devastating, but I am looking forward to finally holding these corrupt officials accountable.”

With this week’s ruling,  Armstrong’s attempt to blow the whistle on the very people who are supposed to protect workplace whistleblowers will receive its day in court.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.