Supreme Ct Accepts E-Communications Privacy Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal concerning privacy rights to electronic communications. The case comes out of the  Ninth Circuit: Quon v. Arch Wireless, 529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008). It involves an employer reading an employee's text messages, sexy ones at that, where the Ninth Circuit ruled for the employee. The Supreme Court could use this appeal as an opportunity to write an opinion that not only broadly impacts privacy rights of all U.S. citizens, but also impacts employee rights, public record disclosure duties, and the scope of electronic discovery. I have written about this case and the privacy rights issues many times on my blog, and am delighted to see the Supreme Court is willing to take a look at this area. My "emergency blog" post this week, right after the Supreme Court's announcement that it would accept certiorari, talks about the Quon case, the Court's acceptance, and how it might rule. (By the way, I finally have an easier to remember domain name for my blog: e-DiscoveryTeam.com.)

In my blog I discuss a hint the supreme court has already provided on its views. Of course, I could be totally wrong, since predicting the Supreme Court has worse odds than a roulette wheel. But still, the court's refusal to hear the appeal of the lead defendant here, Arch Wireless, and let stand the judgment against them, is some kind of clue as to what the justices are thinking. The ruling against Arch Wireless was pro-privacy, based on its violation of the Stored Wire and Electronic Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2711 (1986). Could this portend rights for Americans to privacy in the clouds? Might the great divide in legal rights between Europe and America have come to the attention of the Supreme Court? Perhaps they are blushing when they meet with their colleagues on the supreme courts of Europe? Perhaps they too sometimes use court computers and email accounts to communicate with their friends and family? Time will tell.