Matt Collins
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The Supreme Court seemed unwilling Tuesday to restrict the government's ability to investigate the people who want to work inside its installations in the post-9/11 world, despite concerns that federal officials could go too far when prying into people's private lives in name of safety.
The high court heard arguments from government contractors who work at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who are fighting the government's request to have them submit to what they call intrusive background checks as a condition of their continued employment.
The case could have ramifications far beyond NASA. Neal Katyal, the acting solicitor general, said the same questions the contractors were objecting to are also used to investigate full- and part-time government employees throughout the government.
"It's a big government," said Chief Justice John Roberts, adding the government can't be expected to individualize background checks to avoid asking questions one person might find intrusive while another might not.
An applicant might have a yard sign proclaiming a wish for the space shuttle to blow up, Justice Samuel Alito said. "I don't see how you're going to get that information without asking open-ended questions," he said.
But with "low-risk or no-risk employees, the government doesn't need to know," said Dan Stormer, who represents 28 scientists and engineers who work at the 177-acre campus east of Los Angeles.
JPL is NASA's premier robotics lab, famous for sending unmanned spacecraft to Mars and the outer solar system. Unlike other NASA research centers, it's run by the California Institute of Technology. Lab scientists, engineers and staff are Caltech employees, but the campus and its buildings are owned by NASA.
Employees said the agency was invading their privacy by requiring the investigations, which included probes into medical records and questioning of friends about everything from their finances to their sex lives. If the workers didn't agree to the checks, they were to be barred and fired.
The questions encroached on the employees' "liberty to control information about oneself ... without government intrusion," Stormer said.
None of the JPL workers who sued work on classified projects or have security clearances, though several are involved in high-profile missions, including the twin Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft studying Saturn and its moons.
In addition, Stormer insisted that JPL has a college-campus atmosphere, with access granted to outsiders with a simple telephone call from inside the facility to the security gate.
Read more:
http://www.newsmax.com/US/USSupremeCourtNASA/2010/10/05/id/372651
The high court heard arguments from government contractors who work at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who are fighting the government's request to have them submit to what they call intrusive background checks as a condition of their continued employment.
The case could have ramifications far beyond NASA. Neal Katyal, the acting solicitor general, said the same questions the contractors were objecting to are also used to investigate full- and part-time government employees throughout the government.
"It's a big government," said Chief Justice John Roberts, adding the government can't be expected to individualize background checks to avoid asking questions one person might find intrusive while another might not.
An applicant might have a yard sign proclaiming a wish for the space shuttle to blow up, Justice Samuel Alito said. "I don't see how you're going to get that information without asking open-ended questions," he said.
But with "low-risk or no-risk employees, the government doesn't need to know," said Dan Stormer, who represents 28 scientists and engineers who work at the 177-acre campus east of Los Angeles.
JPL is NASA's premier robotics lab, famous for sending unmanned spacecraft to Mars and the outer solar system. Unlike other NASA research centers, it's run by the California Institute of Technology. Lab scientists, engineers and staff are Caltech employees, but the campus and its buildings are owned by NASA.
Employees said the agency was invading their privacy by requiring the investigations, which included probes into medical records and questioning of friends about everything from their finances to their sex lives. If the workers didn't agree to the checks, they were to be barred and fired.
The questions encroached on the employees' "liberty to control information about oneself ... without government intrusion," Stormer said.
None of the JPL workers who sued work on classified projects or have security clearances, though several are involved in high-profile missions, including the twin Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft studying Saturn and its moons.
In addition, Stormer insisted that JPL has a college-campus atmosphere, with access granted to outsiders with a simple telephone call from inside the facility to the security gate.
Read more:
http://www.newsmax.com/US/USSupremeCourtNASA/2010/10/05/id/372651
