CONGRESS SHOULD APPROVE BILL FOR RIGHT OF PRIVACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200590005-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 4, 2000
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: October 2, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP 005-4
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CORPUS CHRISTI, TEX'
CALLER
-SUN. CALLER-TIMES
14-67. , 545
5-79 4t7
1967
!Congress Should Approve
F
nel. Too many have been shunted away from public
service because of unjustified probing into their private:
affairs.
The bill as it passed the Senate will prohibit most
federal governmental agencies from using question-
naires, psychological tests, or lie detectors to./inquire
Into the personal affairs-religious beliefs, off-duty,
I activities, family relationships, and finances-of pros-'
pective employes. Reasonably, we think, the Federal:
Bureau of Investigation, thegnal Intelligence A en-
'.. cy and the National Security Agency are exempt ifie"
! agency head. determines that such examinations. are:
essential to national security.
The threat to the right of privacy is one of the',
gravest concerns in our mass democratic society. This.
has been, brought out clearly in several carefully re-
searched works, particularly Alan F. Westin's "Priva-,
cy and Freedom" that was five years in the writing.:
Others include Samuel Dash's "The Eavesdroppers," a
book by Sen. Edward Long, D-Mo., a member of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, called "The Intruders," f
and, in private enterprise, Edward Engberg's "The Spy
in the Corporate Structure: And the Right to Privacy."
All of ' these studies as well as the work of the'
Ervin subcommittee, confirm that legitimate personal
privacy is under alarming attack from governmental
and corporation policy, as well as sophisticated tech- i.
nology designed to. disrobe the individual for public
scrutiny. This must be combatted, or the American
rule of law, that a person is . innocent until proved;
guilty, will become a hollow mockery. And the personal
probers will become an evil prevailing force in national
life. What must be resisted is a,scientific 'McCarthy
era."
Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr., D-N.C., chairman of the
Judiciary Committee's . subcommittee on civil rights,
has been working for a long time to protect the right of
privacy of federal employes. It looks now like his ma-
jor bill to that end will clear Congress this session.
The Senate has now passed the' Ervin bill,
(79-to-4), and it looks acceptable to the House in its
present form. Without any expected 'detriment to the
national security, it should go a long way toward ena-
bling the federal government to attract better person.
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP75-00149R000200590005-4
ill for ght of Privacy