Labor & Employment Law

Search of police pager text messages was reasonable, so no 4th amendment violation

As expected [here], the US Supreme Court held today that the City's search of a police pager text messages was reasonable, so there was no 4th amendment violation by the City.

City of Ontario v. Quon (US Supreme Ct 06/17/2010).

The City provided alphanumeric pagers to police officers on the SWAT team. After Sgt. Quon exceeded his allotted usage limit, the City acquired transcripts from the pager provider and discovered that Quon had used the pager for personal purposes and that some messages were sexually explicit.

Quon and those with whom he had exchanged messages sued claiming an unlawful search in violation of the 4th amendment. The trial court found that officers had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the text messages, but that the search did not violate the 4th amendment. The 9th Circuit reversed, holding that the search was unreasonable as matter of law.

The US Supreme Court reversed, holding that the search of Quon's text messages was reasonable and did not violate the 4th amendment. The search was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose, and it was not excessive in scope.

(The Court assumed - without deciding - that Quon had a reasonable expectation of privacy.)

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