Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Supreme Court takes case on pilot's privacy

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • The court tries to figure out what Congress intended by the words "actual damages"
  • Stanmore Cooper says the words cover mental and emotional distress
  • The government argues they are aimed at monetary damages
  • Cooper says the public disclosure of his HIV status caused him harm
Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with a familiar, if elusive, foe -- legislative intent -- when considering whether a California man should be compensated after the government violated his privacy by disclosing his personal medical history.

The justices appeared torn over the meaning of two fuzzy words in federal law -- "actual damages" -- and whether Stanmore Cooper's claims of mental and emotional distress are covered under the Privacy Act.

"The argument you have made -- and I certainly understand it, that this is the Privacy Act and so it's precisely these types of damages that you would be concerned about -- really cuts both ways," said Chief Justice John Roberts to Cooper's lawyer.

"What you are saying is this (law) covers a really big chunk of damages, because this is what the whole act was about," Roberts said. "And it seems to me that argument suggests that there is some weight to the government's point: that if you are going to get that, you really do need clearer" language in the law that would immunize the government to some extent, from a flood of hard-to-disprove lawsuits.

The ambiguity has divided lower courts for years, and privacy experts say the ease with which the government can collect and share information in the digital age makes the issue of personal privacy liability ripe for review.
 
Cooper, 69, became a licensed recreational pilot in 1964, but two decades later the San Francisco man was diagnosed with the HIV virus. As his condition worsened over time, he let his private pilot's certificate and his airman medical certificate lapse.

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