Legal Research

Justice For “Joe The Plumber”

Judicial Watch has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against 3 former employees of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for performing unauthorized searches of 3 state databases in order to dig up dirt on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. Mr. Wurzelbacher, you may recall, had his 15 minutes of fame during the election of 2008 as Joe the Plumber. John McCain cited him as a symbol for the American middle class. The 3 Family Services employees were all apparently Obama supporters. There will be dirt. And it will be flung.

Remember when hospital employees looked up George Clooney’s medical records? I’m personally acquainted with a former bank employee who looked up account info on his/her relatives and neighbors. Some databases are just a big, sweet, tempting target for abuse. You have to discipline yourself not to do that.

BTW Judicial Watch links to the Ohio Inspector General’s report. The Exhibits section includes emails from one of the defendants, Helen Jones-Kelley, containing email addresses and cell phone numbers of individuals not involved in the case. Unredacted email addresses and cell phone numbers, I might add.

Oops.

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).