Judge blocks background checks

Kansas City Star | 02/03/2007 | Judge blocks background checks: "Kansas City cannot enforce a new ordinance that called for background checks on municipal judge nominees, a federal judge ordered Friday.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple said he was concerned that the ordinance would pose a serious risk of invasion of privacy because it did not ensure that information such as Social Security numbers would be protected and kept confidential.

“This ordinance is overly broad,” Whipple said.

Whipple’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed by Melissa Howard, one of three finalists for a Kansas City municipal judge vacancy. The lawsuit argued that the background checks would be a license to examine personal information, with no guidance on who would have access to it or penalties for misuse.

To bolster her case, Howard said background information that she had provided to the judicial nominating commission had been distributed publicly after she was promised it would not be.

She argued that the new background check requirement goes too far."