Justices question Caltech scientists' privacy claims
The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is contracted through Caltech by NASA, who are challenging the government's right to perform background checks. A Court of Appeals ruled that open-ended questions on the background checks violated their right to privacy. Elene Kagan, then the Solicitor General, argued last year that the Supreme Court should reverse the ruling, saying that it threatened standard background checks used by the government. The Supreme Court justices questioned how far their ruling should go, as well as what limits should be placed on the questions asked. The ruling will have implications public employees and private government contractors as to what rights the government has to look into their personal background.
See "Justices question Caltech scientists' privacy claims", David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, October 5, 2010