Release a Public Record, Get Sued for Violating Federal Law
As AmLaw Daily reports, disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has filed suit against the telecom company that stored his infamous text messages that were deemed to be public records and directly lead to the former mayor spending 99 days in jail for perjury.
This lawsuit follows a Ninth Circuit decision upholding a civil rights lawsuit by a police officer who sued the city he worked for after his text messages sent from his city-issued phone were released, even though the text messages were "public records." Quon v. Arch Wireless, 529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008).
The key fact in the Quon case was that the City had created a reasonable expectation of privacy by failing to monitor text messages or limit personal use. If a public agency allows the personal use of text messages, or even emails, the agency must make sure employees know those messages will be monitored to ensure the employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in those messages.
