9th Circuit Rules in Favor of JPL Employees Regarding Intrusive Background Investigations
• Spaceref.com
Today, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the federal
government in favor of employees at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in the matter of Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12.
One of the matters of considerable interest to the judges
pertained to the demand by Caltech that every JPL employee
'voluntarily' agree to submit to an open ended background
investigation in order to receive
an ID badge compliant with HSPD#12. The government
argued there were no limits to the extent of the investigation. If
an employee refused to 'volunteer', Caltech would terminate the
employee.