Lyle Denniston comments on the Supreme Court justices’ reactions during oral argument on FCC v. ATT today: With a clarity that approached the blatantly obvious, the notion that federal law gives corporations a right of “personal privacy” in their internal records steadily lost support as argument on the point unfolded Wednesday in the Supreme Court….
Category: Court
Swiss banker who gave WikiLeaks tax evader files escapes jail time for breaking bank secrecy laws
Frank Jordans of Associated Press reports: A Swiss banker who claims to have handed WikiLeaks details of rich tax evaders has been found guilty of coercion and breaking Switzerland’s strict banking secrecy laws. A judge at Zurich’s Regional Court has sentenced Rudolf Elmer to a fine of over 6,000 Swiss francs ($6,000). Elmer claimed at…
SCOTUS: Oral arguments today in FCC v. AT&T
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in FCC v. AT&T, a case that raises the issue of whether corporations have “personhood” in the sense that they have a reasonable expectation of privacy that individuals enjoy. The specific issue before the court is whether exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act that apply to individuals’…
SCOTUS: Employee background checks do not violate right to informational privacy – NASA v. Nelson
The Supreme Court has issued its opinion in National Aeronautics and Space Administration v. Nelson, a workplace privacy case involving background checks (previous coverage). Employees had argued that forms used by NASA violated their constitutional right to informational privacy. The court found for the government, holding that the background check questions at issue were reasonable…