Woman Sues NASA For Aggressive Pursuit Of Moon Rock

The widow of a NASA engineer, to make ends meet, tried selling a paperweight containing a speck of moon rock. In response, NASA detained Joann Davis for two hours, and organized six armed officers to forcibly seize the paperweight. A panel of three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Davis may sue the agency. The court said that a sting operation was conducted to assess Davis’ interest in selling the moon rock, but at no time was she informed that all lunar material is the property of the federal government and that possession was a crime. Norman Conley, a special agent and criminal investigator for NASA’s Office of Inspector General, staged a hand-off for the item and, when Davis and her 70-year-old husband arrived for the exchange, officers sprang into action. The Ninth Circuit panel ruled that Davis’ constitutional right to be free of unreasonable seizure may have been violated. “Conley had no law enforcement interest in detaining Davis for two hours while she stood wearing urine-soaked pants in a restaurant’s parking lot during the lunch rush,” Chief Ninth Circuit Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote for the panel.