GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of a new insider trading law that would require nearly 30,000 federal workers to disclose details about their financial transactions on the Internet.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. issued a temporary preliminary injunction that bars the law, called the STOCK Act, from being enforced on executive branch employees until at least November. Williams wrote that the law appears to illegally infringe on federal workers’ right to privacy.
The injunction does not affect enforcement of the law against members of Congress and their staffs. The law was originally written to apply only to Congress, but was amended to extend to the executive branch as well.
Congress is considering changing the law again to exempt the executive branch.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
