Court: Feds can pry into NASA scientists' lives

[struggle4progress]

Source: SF Chronicle via SFGate

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 19, 2011

(01-19) 16:50 PST WASHINGTON -- The government can look into the personal lives, finances and drug habits of NASA scientists, including those who lack access to classified information, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The inquiries, ordered under President George W. Bush's administration in 2004, consist of "reasonable questions" that do not intrude on any rights the workers have to keep personal information private, the court said.

The ruling overturned a lower-court decision that had limited the background checks of scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. That decision also applied to workers at other NASA operations, including the Ames Research Center in Mountain View.

The checks were challenged by 28 employees at the Pasadena lab, most of whom had worked there for at least 20 years and had undergone routine background checks when hired, their lawyers said ...

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/19/BACC1HBJJS.DTL&tsp=1

[Lint Head]

1. Privacy is over.

[RKP5637]

2. As most Americans are asleep at the wheel while what privacy they have left is

being constantly dismantled. Then one day they will wake up and say WTF when it hits their cocoon and then it will be far to late.

[bluedigger]

3. Why should they be any different?

As a government contractor I had to undergo a background check twice in three years, and I certainly didn't have any access to classified information. It was a pain in the arse, but I did find out my parents' birthplaces in the course of filling out the 30 odd page form, so it wasn't a complete waste of time, I guess... Rocket scientists aren't that special.

[Kablooie]

4. Supreme Court reverses privacy rights decision affecting federal contract workers.

Source: La Canada Online

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday to allow sweeping background checks of JPL scientists and other government contract workers, ruling that privacy rights do not prevent officials from digging into employees' medical, financial and sexual histories.


Research scientist Robert Nelson and 27 other JPL scientists who do not have access to classified material had won an injunction in U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that prevented NASA from implementing the procedures, developed by the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush.

"We're very disappointed that the court ruled against us, and as near as we understand it, the ball is in NASA's court to come up with their own standards for these investigations," Nelson said.

...

"We reject the argument that the government, when it requests job-related personal information in an employment background check, has a constitutional burden to demonstrate that its questions are 'necessary,'" Alito wrote.

In a separate ruling, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that he believed no such right to informational privacy exists.

Nelson said he and other JPL scientists would release a joint statement later this week.

Read more: http://www.lacanadaonline.com/news/tn-vsl-jpl-20110119,0,6693499.story

---

Hmmm.

[dmr]

5. Unanimously. I'm speechless. n/t

[Kablooie]

6. Fear and paranoia seems to trump every human right nowadays.

[notesdev]

8. you were mistaken

if you thought anybody gets appointed to the Supreme Court to stand up for the little guy.

[EFerrari]

7. We're so screwed. n/t

[Webster Green]

9. Wow! Unanimous ruling.

That's messed up. The whole court is a bunch of fascist assholes.

Oh well, this delusional empire is toast anyway.

[No Elephants]

10. Struggling. to. find. a. reason. for, rational. optimism. None comes quickly to mind.

Only one on the Court is a classic Dem--and even she did not speak for us.

[Ian David]

11. I don't trust astronauts. They can only eat from a tube, and they're addicted to Tang.

If god had intended man to walk on The Moon, we would have been born with cement feet.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK-30442RII

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Wow. Both Sotomayor and Kagan both supported this ruling