US SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS REASONABLENESS OF EMPLOYER’S SEARCH OF EMPLOYEE’S TEXT MESSAGES

By Kent Berk on August 3rd, 2010 in BLOG, EMPLOYMENT DISPUTES, employment law

The ABA reports that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a search by the City of Ontario of one of its employee’s text messages because the search was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose and the scope of the search was not excessive. For example, the search did not involve any texts sent or received while the employee was off-duty. Only those texts sent or received while the employee was working were searched. The Ninth Circuit had previously found the search to have violated the employee’s Fourth Amendment Rights. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed.