A Civil Rights Success Story

This week an appeals court in California handed a bunch of NASA scientists a victory that is a victory for the civil liberties of all Federal employees and contractors. At stake was the privacy of all NASA scientists and contractors and potentially all Federal employees and contractors. It all stems from a reasonable attempt by Homeland Security to standardize the procedure for obtaining ID cards that allow access to Federal facilities (Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12). The method of implementation required even low-risk employees and contractors (including my wife, a grad student studying climate) to sign a blanket waiver giving the Federal government permission to investigate all aspects of a person's private life, including finiancial and medical records, or risk losing the right to enter their place of employment with the government.

One of the first places where this was aggressively implemented was NASA. Just as my wife, working in a NASA facility where no sensitive research is done, was informed she will have to sign away her rights to get an ID, NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab filed a lawsuit to block implementation of the directive. Today that lawsuit bore fruit. Please read on.

Some of you may have been following the long story of a threat to my wife's civil liberties thanks to Homeland Security. The original diaries (which got LOTS of attention, being picked up by the Huffington Post and boosting the morale of some NASA scientists involved) can be found here:

My Wife Faces Homeland Security Part I: Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12

Part I deals with the basics of the directive and how it would affect my family and focuses on emails exchanged among scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab that my wife (who works in a different NASA facility) forwarded to me with the permission of those involved in the correspondence. The way the directive was going to be carried out was particularly Orwellian.

My Wife Faces Homeland Security Part II: The Suitability Matrix

In Part II the strangeness of the procedure increases and my wife and I focus on the "Suitability Matrix," a procedure that, in theory, all Federal employees and contractors are supposed to be processed through that would itself involve considerable invasion of privacy and which can be interpreted, within current Federal Law (e.g. the exclusion of gays from the military) and if fully enforced, to prohibit homosexuals from working for the Federal government.

My Wife Faces Homeland Security Part III: The Resignation Letter

Part III publishes a resignation letter a JPL employee sent when she resigned, after 40 years working for JPL, in protest of the implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12. She expresses herself well and we all should pay attention to her reasons for resigning.

After I wrote that three part series, the JPL lawsuit made it to the courtroom of one Judge Otis Wright, a Bush appointee, who denied their case. The JPL scientists appealed and today they won their appeal.

My wife's civil liberties are left intact, at least for now, and she can continue her research without giving the Federal government a blanket waiver to investigate her private life. Here is the press release I received by the senior scientist at JPL who has been my main contact and who was a plaintiff in the case:

Federal court of appeals rules in favor of JPL employees in suit against Caltech and NASA over intrusive background investigations


Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in favor of the JPL employees who sued Caltech and NASA over intrusive background investigations.

A lower court had dismissed the employee’s claims and the employees won a temporary injunction from the ninth circuit court of appeals. Yesterday’ the same lower court dismissed Caltech as a defendant in the case. Today’s action by the court of appeals overules the lower court.

The Ninth Circuit Court of appeals found, “The Appellants have demonstrated serious questions as to certain of their claims on which they are likely to succeed on the merits, and the balance of hardships tips sharply in their favor. We therefore conclude that the district court abused its discretion in denying Appellants’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and we reverse and remand.”

In addition the court reinstated Caltech as a defendant in the case. Caltech had claimed it was only doing what NASA said. However the court said, “...Caltech did do more—it established, on its own initiative, a policy that JPL employees who failed to obtain federal identification badges would not simply be denied access to JPL, they would be terminated entirely from Caltech’s employment.”

Robert M. Nelson, a Senior Research Scientist at JPL and the lead plaintiff in the case said, “This is a victory for all NASA employees and a victory for those who wrote the constitution of the United States. All Americans should thank James Madison and his colleagues for giving us the Bill of Rights”.

Background: The case evolves from a hearing last year in which employees of NASA’s JPL sought injunctive relief against their employer, Caltech, and the NASA in order to prevent intrusive personal background investigations. Caltech and NASA argued that these intrusions were required under Homeland Security Presidential Directive #12, an executive order signed by President George W. Bush. The JPL employees do no classified work.
Judge Otis Wright dismissed the case on October 3, 2007. The employees appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and an emergency temporary injunction was granted on October, 5 2007, just hours before JPL was to begin advertising for replacements for those employees who were deemed non-compliant. A second panel of the Ninth Circuit Court heard arguments on this case on Dec 5, 2007, Todays opinion is the outcome of that hearing. All court documents relevant to the case can be found at HSPD12JPL.org

We all should thank the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for upholding an American's right to privacy.