Posted in Uncategorized on March 29, 2012
The New York Times is reporting that the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that “a private pilot whose H.I.V.-positive status was improperly shared between government agencies cannot collect damages for the emotional distress he suffered when he was punished for hiding his medical condition from the Federal Aviation Administration.”
According to the story by the New York Times,
In a case that pitted competing interests of public safety, personal privacy and the broad immunity of the government from liability lawsuits, the court’s more conservative majority found that Congress had not allowed compensation for mental anguish when violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 inflicted no actual damage, like a loss of income.
It will now be left to Congress to amend the Privacy Act to authorize such claims to prevent similar abuses of the Privacy Act from going unpunished in the future.
Story from the New York Times: Court Rules Against Pilot Penalized For Hiding His HIV Status.