One of the hottest state disclosure law issues is whether e-mails from state employees are public records in that state subject to the state disclosure law. Now, the Idaho Supreme Court will decide if e-mails generated by state employees are subject to the state's public record law.
One of the problems is that state public records laws were written well before e-mail was ever thought of. So, even if courts decide that the laws do not pertain to e-mail, the issue will not go away. Rather, I look for the issue to switch from one of litigation to one of legislation, and a movement to amend state public record laws to specifically include e-mail and other technologically advance messaging systems will occur.
The overall issue isn't just the public right to know versus privacy rights. It is that people assume that email traffic vanishes.
In the corporate world, "private emails" can be disclosed just because the recipient is under investigation for something unrelated. Look at the Enron emails that are widely published. You can learn about people's private lives, relationships, and more -- even if they had nothing to do with the Enron scandal.
Roger
Blog: Death By Email
Posted by: Roger Matus | April 05, 2007 at 11:48 AM