Ninth Curcuit Court extends JPL ruling

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has extended its temporary injunction to block NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech from requiring employees to comply with extensive background checks.

“The court extended it to the first week of December,” said Virginia Keeny, attorney for the JPL employees. “We feel very positive about it. The decision means that the Ninth Circuit did find that the hardship weighed against our clients and that serious constitutional questions were raised.”

Without the injunction all employees would have to comply with newly required background checks by Oct. 27 or they would have been “voluntarily terminated.”

The battle began when 28 scientists and engineers who work at JPL filed a lawsuit against NASA/JPL and Caltech. They considered the newly required background checks as intrusive and violated the constitution.

The checks are part of an executive order signed by President George W. Bush in 2003. Information can be gathered from friends, co-workers and neighbors on a variety of subjects from health history to sexual orientation.

Keeny is scheduled to file their brief to the court on Oct. 25, the government, NASA, is scheduled to file theirs during the first week of November.

“Then the ninth circuit will issue an opinion,” Keeny said.

If the court rules in her clients’ favor, the JPL and Caltech employees will not have to submit to the intrusive background checks.

If they lose, Keeny said she assumes that NASA will give them a brief time to comply. If they do not comply, they lose their jobs.

For now an e-mail has been sent to JPL employees that, due to the injunction, no one will be required to complete the checks until the court rules.

“This means none of the employees have to comply with the checks [for the time being],” Keeny said. “The process is on hold.”