Critical Trends

Constitutional Rights

Shelia A. Lucas

Dr. Angela Parham

Constitutional and Administrative Law

March 1, 2012

Lawrence J. Korb served with the United States Department of Defense as the assistant secretary of defense for manpower, installations, and logistics between the years of 1981 to 1985. After his government employment ended, Korb was hired as vice president in charge of Washington relations by a company named Raytheon. Raytheon is a large Corporation that builds equipment for the U.S. Military.

In December of 1985, Korb joined the executive board of the Committee for National Security, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to informing the public about any issue dealing with national security and the prevention of nuclear war. In February 1986, the CNS held a press conference in which Korb spoke. The day after the press conference, an article was printed in the Washington Post stating a specific comment Korb had made. It mentioned that at the press conference, Korb was critical of increased defense spending and urged a scaling back of the 600 ships, fifteen carrier groups Navy supported by the Secretary of Navy. Navy officials, Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as Air Force officials complained to Raytheon. Korb agreed to write a letter to the Washington Post to help clarify previous statements. In March 1986, Raytheon tried to bargain with Korb as an alternative to him being completely terminated. He was to be reassigned to a position as a commercial marketing consultant at a Raytheon subsidiary. Korb felt that this new position to be inferior to his Washington position when it came to salary, benefits, tenure, status and responsibility.

In December 1987, Korb filed a complaint in the Superior Court alleging a wrongful termination in bad faith and for reasons that violated the public policy of the common wealth. The Massachusetts Supreme Court affirmed the summary judgment: Korb characterizes the public policy at issue too...