Court avoids judgment on Passport Act

There was a curious development in Privacy First's civil Passport lawsuit on 2 February: the District Court of The Hague declared both Privacy First and its 21 co-claimants inadmissible. Apart from the legally incomprehensible motivation, what is particularly striking is how short the judgment is. Privacy First, therefore, cannot escape the impression that the court mainly wanted to get rid of this case quickly.

The court justified the judgment by saying that Privacy First would have no interest of its own in the case and that the only route open to the co-claimants (citizens) would be the administrative courts. This while Privacy First, as an idealistic foundation in the matter, was precisely all interest in the matter and citizens cannot object (directly) administratively to the storage of their fingerprints for a new passport or ID card. Such objection is only possible through a long, cumbersome procedure. Privacy First Foundation is not served by such 'ping-ponging' with citizens. Privacy First is currently considering what civil follow-up steps to take and will report soon.

* UPDATE 16 Feb 2011 * Privacy First goes into appeal against the inadmissibility in the court in the Passport trial.