National Aeronautics and Space Administration v. Nelson

NASA (defendant) required its Jet Propulsion Laboratory contract employees -- treated as the functional equivalent of federal civil servants -- to undergo standard background checks starting in 2004, including a questionnaire asking whether the employee had used illegal drugs within the past year and, if so, whether the employee had sought treatment; all responses were protected from public disclosure under the Privacy Act of 1974. Twenty-eight JPL contract employees (plaintiffs) sued before responding to the questionnaire, arguing the treatment/counseling inquiry violated their constitutional right to informational privacy and seeking a preliminary injunction, which the district court denied but the Ninth Circuit reversed.