Idaho Supreme Court hears e-mail records challenge
COEUR DALENE, Idaho (AP) -- Idaho's Supreme
Court was asked to determine Tuesday if e-mail messages sent between
public employees using public computers can be considered private and
thus exempt from the state's open-records law.
Sitting
here, the five justices heard arguments from attorneys representing
Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas and former Juvenile Drug Court
supervisor Marina Kalani and a newspaper that wants to see nearly 900
e-mails between them.
The court is expected to announce its ruling sometime later this year.
The
case is an appeal from a July 2005 ruling by Idaho District Court Judge
John R. Stegner favoring The Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane,
Wash. He held that the public has a right to read the full contents of
hundreds of e-mails exchanged between the prosecutor and Kalani.
Read entire story in the Idaho Statesman