Posted by Deborah on 12/15/09

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this may seem off topic, but when you consider many
governmental agency inter-office communications being exempt
from FOIA and the wealth of evidence obtained from
inter-office memos in proving misconduct, RICO, or other
criminal activity it is not so irrelevant.

do the officers have a reasonable expectation of privacy
using communications devices provided by their employers,
ultimately the citizens, to be used in the scope of their
employment or are their communiques on these employer
provided devices to be considered public records?

latimes.com
Supreme Court takes up text privacy case
Police in Ontario, California, say their rights were
violated when their boss read text messages sent on
city-provided devices. The Supreme Court will hear an appeal
in the case.

By David G. Savage

December 15, 2009

Reporting from Washington

The Supreme Court said Monday it would rule for the first
time on whether employees had a right to privacy when they
sent text messages on electronic devices supplied by their
employers.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal from the city of
Ontario, which was successfully sued by police Sgt. Jeff
Quon and three other officers after their text messages --
some of which were sexually explicit -- were read by the
police chief.

At issue is whether the chief violated their rights under
the 4th Amendment, which forbids "unreasonable searches" by
the government. The Supreme Court's ruling on the issue, due
by June, could set new rules for the workplace in public
agencies, and perhaps in private companies as well.

While the 4th Amendment applies only to the government, many
judges rely on the high court's privacy rulings in deciding
disputes in the private sector, legal experts say.

Entire article here;
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-court-privacy15-2009dec15,0,5684529.story

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