Nevada high court to decide whether governor's email is 'personal'

A Nevada newspaper asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn a lower court’s ruling that e-mail messages sent by Gov. Jim Gibbons were personal and therefore not subject to public records law, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

Carson City Judge James Russell had previously denied the Journal’s request for 98 of 104 e-mail messages between Gibbons and his staff over a six-month period. The newspaper had asked for a log of the e-mail if the actual messages were not released.

The justices will rule on the issue at a later date.

Courts in Michigan, the District of Columbia, and West Virginia have also ruled recently that e-mail sent from government computers can be personal and therefore exempt from public records requests.