Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which spearheads NASA’s planetary research, are suing the space agency and their employer CalTech over security checks into their health, mental state and sexual histories. The Nation says the new security checks are “puzzling” because scientists at the lab have “little or no” involvement in secret research. As the LA Times reports, NASA labs have been told to issue new badges, requiring employees to authorise access to personal information. The Times also says NASA’s administrator Michael Griffin is not for turning: “We will miss those folks [who refuse checks] …That is their choice.”

“This is something straight out of the 1950’s McCarthy era. The ‘suitability criteria’ are so broad that investigators could use them to get rid of anyone they want,” said Dennis Byrnes, Chief Engineer for Flight Dynamics at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (press release).

JPL is run for NASA by Caltech and the New York Times says more than 5,000 employees at the lab are not government employees but work for the university or other contractors, although all are subject to the checks. AP says a request for an injunction blocking the checks will be heard in the California district court on 24 September and, rather terrifyingly, those who won’t agree to them will be “voluntarily terminated” on 27 October. NASA’s page on the hspd12 security checks says “successful intrusions” dropped 46% after introduction of the cards at the Department of Defense. Wired has a nice take on the issue.