Labor & Employment Law

City of Ontario v Quon: Details and briefs

On Monday, April 19, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in City of Ontario v. Quon.

Here are the questions presented:

1. Whether a SWAT team member has a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages transmitted on his SWAT pager, where the police department has an official no-privacy policy but a non-policymaking lieutenant announced an informal policy of allowing some personal use of the pagers.

2. Whether the Ninth Circuit contravened this Court?s Fourth Amendment precedents and created a circuit conflict by analyzing whether the police department could have used "less intrusive methods" of reviewing text messages transmitted by a SWAT team member on his SWAT pager.

3. Whether individuals who send text messages to a SWAT team member?s SWAT pager have a reasonable expectation that their messages will be free from review by the recipient?s government employer.

Here are the briefs that have been filed:

• Brief for Petitioner City of Ontario, California, Ontario Police Department, and Lloyd Scharf 


• Brief for Respondent Jeff Quon, Jerilyn Quon, April Florio, and Steve Trujillo 


• Reply Brief for Petitioner City of Ontario, California, Ontario Police Department, and Lloyd Scharf 






• Brief for The National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, International City/County Management Association, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the International Municipal Lawyers Association in Support of Petitioner 


• Brief for the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties in Support of Petitioners 


• Brief for the National School Boards Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the California School Boards Association in Support of Petitioners 


• Brief for the Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, the Press-Enterprise Company, the Associated Press, E.W. Scripps Co., the California Newspapers Publishers Association, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the First Amendment Coalition and Californians Aware in Support of Petitioners 


• Brief for the United States in Support of Reversal 


• Brief for the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in Support of Respondent 


• Brief for the New York Intellectual Property Law Association in Support of Respondent 


• Brief for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology, American Civil Liberties Union, and Public Citizen in Support of Respondent 


• Motion for Leave to File Amicus Curiae Brief and Brief for the Rutherford Institute in Support of Respondent 

Full post as published by Ross' Employment Law Blog on April 17, 2010 (boomark / email).