News & Publications

Jan 13, 2010
US Supreme Court grants GMSR Cert Petition in landmark workplace privacy case

For the third time in four years, the United States Supreme Court has granted a GMSR request for certiorari review.  GMSR achieved unanimous victories for its clients in Marshall v. Marshall, 547 U.S. 293 (2006) and Van de Kamp v. Goldstein, 555 U.S. 335 (2009); now the Court has agreed to hear City of Ontario v. Quon, U.S. Sup. Ct. No. 08-1332, which presents the question whether the Ontario Police Department’s review of text messages sent and received by a SWAT team officer on his department-issued pager violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures.  This is the first case in which the Court has considered the application of the Fourth Amendment to a digital medium, and it is the first time in more than 20 years that the Court has considered how the Fourth Amendment applies in a government workplace.  Representing the Department, the City of Ontario and related entities are GMSR lawyers Kent Richland (who will argue the case in April 2010) and Kent Bullard.