Employment Law | Expert Legal Commentary
May 4, 2010
The Supreme Court Appears Poised to Reverse the 9th Cir. in Quon v. City of Ontario
Quon v. City of Ontario
By
Jeremy J. Gray of Zuber & Taillieu
As discussed here on LawUpdates.com last year, in Quon v. City of Ontario , the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a City of Ontario SWAT officer named Jeff Quon possessed a privacy right in the personal text messages he sent and received from his city issued communication device. Some of these personal messages were lurid and led to an internal affairs investigation of Quon. (For the details of the case please follow the link back to our prior discussion). Because the case involved a City (a state actor), the case arose under the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution. The court was required to consider (1) whether the SWAT officer possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy in the text messages, and, (2) even if he had such a rieasonable expectation had the City's search nonetheless been reasonable. The 9th Circuit found in favor of Quon, and held both that the personal messages were private, and, that the City's search had been unreasonable insofar as the city's search methodology had not been by the least intrusive method.
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About the Author
Jeremy J. Gray is a Partner of Zuber & Taillieu, focusing on employment law.
Image Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/HelleM
