Text messaging

An attorney who opposes an Ohio city prosecutor accused of racial discrimination is facing possible contempt charges after he released text messages involved in the lawsuit to two local newspaper reporters.

The attorney, Scott Cochran, and his client, the Islamic Society of Greater Youngstown, are accused of releasing the documents in violation of a court order requiring that any personal information contained in the records be redacted before their public release.

The fight surrounding an amendment to Utah’s open government law ended Friday when the state legislature passed a bill that officially repeals the controversial measure H.B. 477, but the future of Utah's records law remains uncertain.

Legislators passed H.B. 1001 Friday during a special session called by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. H.B. 1001 repeals H.B. 477, and allows the state to restart the process of amending Utah's open records laws.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law Tuesday night a bill that amends the state's open records law to allow for more government privacy. The controversial House Bill 477 moved swiftly through the Utah Legislature late last week, but was recalled by the Senate on Monday to delay the date it goes into effect due to pressure from the governor, citizens and transparency advocacy groups.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a police department had the authority to search an officer's text messages that were sent using a department-issued pager.

Police Sergeant Jeff Quon could not reasonably "conclude that his messages were in all circumstances immune from scrutiny," wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy for the court. Though the court’s ruling was unanimous, two justices wrote separate opinions explaining their reasoning.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday about whether government employers violated employees’ privacy rights by reading personal text messages sent from government-issued devices. The outcome of the case could have an impact on how public-records laws are interpreted.

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will hear a case about whether employee text messages sent on employer-issued phones are private.

The case began when a police chief in Ontario, California, read sexually explicit text messages sent between officers. Though the city claims it told employees, including police officers, their electronic communications could be reviewed, four officers sued the police department, claiming the review violated their privacy rights.

A local Colorado police department has refused a television station's request for instant messages exchanged between officers, saying they do not constitute public records.

According to a memo sent to Westminster police employees, a random internal audit of the  department's internal electronic messaging system revealed that employees were sending messages containing derogatory or otherwise sexually offensive comments, sometimes about each other.