I certainly agree with Gerry's appeal to consistency regardless of political
affiliation - and with his cynicism regarding the same (says the political
science grad). 

But at the risk of further muddying the issue, let me point y'all to another
side of this. The Supreme Court of Arkansas ruled in July that personal
email messages, even those created on state time and stored on state-owned
computers, may not be records. 

Per the article below, the Arkansas public records statute defines records
as data "that constitute a record of the performance or lack of performance
of official functions that are or should be carried out by a public official
or employee . . . or any other agency wholly or partially supported by
public funds or expending public funds." The court will determine whether
personal emails fit under that definition using a content-based analysis. 

It'll be interesting to see how this proceeds; on the one hand, the statute
could be clearer, but at least the presumption is the same as for many
government and even private-sector organizations: the messages belong to the
organization, not the individual. But in many other countries, there is a
distinct right to privacy that trumps organizational ownership such that
employers cannot monitor email. Did I mention I'm not a lawyer, domestic or
international? I wonder though where that's where we may end up - and what
that might mean to open records/sunshine acts at all levels of government?

Originally reported on the Death by Email blog at
http://www.deathbyemail.com/2007/07/content-analysi.html; that blog links to
an original-ish story here:
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2007/0723-foi-person.html


Jesse Wilkins
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