Washington, D.C. – A former State Department employee was sentenced today to one year of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for illegally accessing more than 50 confidential passport application files, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division announced. On Jan. 27, 2009, Gerald R. Lueders, 65, of Woodbridge, Va.,…
Category: Court
Will courts rein in TSA?
Former Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr comments: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has become increasingly aggressive in expanding its responsibility from simply searching passengers to ensure no weapons or explosives are brought on board commercial aircraft. The agency, housed in the federal Department of Homeland Security, has moved in recent years to assume for itself…
Can Libraries Refuse to Disable Filters?
In the first legal challenge to Internet filtering practices enacted by relatively few libraries, the Washington Supreme Court is weighing whether the North Central Regional Library (NCRL), Wenatchee, can refuse to turn off filters at the request of adult patrons seeking constitutionally protected material. At issue in Bradburn v. North Central Regional Library, which was the…
Lawsuit fans flames of N.J. debate on adoption privacy
In New Jersey adoption circles, the right to privacy versus the need for an identity isn’t just an explosive issue of the moment: It’s been a painful, simmering fire for both sides for almost 30 years. […] Last month, numerous adoptee-rights groups and individuals from as far as Wyoming and Washington state contacted the Daily…