Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Were Background Checks on "Joe the Plumber" Illegal?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_10_19-2008_10_25.shtml#1224963427
The Columbus Dispatch [1]reports that state officials are
investigating whether state employees illegally accessed the BMV
records of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber."
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information
on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was
pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times
shortly after the debate.
Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed through accounts assigned
to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the
Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo
Police Department.
It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why.
Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration
information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate
law-enforcement and government business. . . .
The attorney general's office is investigating whether the access
of Wurzelbacher's BMV information through the office's Ohio Law
Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, spokeswoman
Jennifer Brindisi said.
"We're trying to pinpoint where it came from," she said. The
investigation could become "criminal in nature," she said. Brindisi
would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct.
16.
References
1.
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/10/25/copy/Joe.ART_ART_10-25-08_B1_3LBMSK0.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
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