In the case of Rockwell Int'l Corp. v. United States, Stone took legal action against the Rockwell International Corporation in a complaint that argued that Rockwell had infringed upon established environmental laws; that the company had inappropriately handled nuclear waste and, in turn, had committed fraud when relaying the company's activities to the Department of Energy. To complicate the case, it was revealed that while Stone indeed worked at the facility that his complaint pertained to, he had not worked at the facility for a least a year before he filed his complaint and he therefore falsely asserted himself as the primary and original source of the whistle blowing information. In reaction to Stone's assertions, the Rockwell International Corporation requested a dismissal of the cased based on the fact that all of the information cited in Stone's argument was released to the public and therefore was considered public knowledge; and that the claimant had no grounds for his case because the information he was citing was already widely known.
The case was not dismissed by the District Court and a jury was allowed to hear the case. At the end of the trial, Stone was awarded four million for his whistle blowing actions. Rockwell International immediately appealed the decision to the Tenth Circuit Court - again, the decision fell in favor of Stone. Again Rockwell International appealed and applied to the Supreme Court for relief. The United States Supreme Court made a majority ruling in the case in favor of Rockwell International and Stone lost the case.
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