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SCIENTISTS working on government space programmes must submit to extensive background checks as a condition of their employment. So ruled the US Supreme Court last week in a unanimous decision.
In 2005, 28 employees at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, filed a lawsuit seeking to bar the institution from requiring the checks. The plaintiffs claimed the enquiries gave NASA investigators permission to collect information that is irrelevant to their work, such as medical history, past drug use and sexual habits.
“The plaintiffs claimed the checks let NASA collect irrelevant data,…
