Substantive Law Study Support

Ontario v. Quon, 560 U.S.     (2010)

Quon was employed by the Ontario Police Department (OPD) as a police sergeant and a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team. Quon was issued an alphanumeric pager capable of sending and receiving text messages by the city and was told the city reserved the right to monitor all activity on the pager.

Quon exceeded his monthly text message character allotment multiple times and was reminded that text messages were considered e-mail and could be audited. In an effort to avoid an audit, Quon reimbursed the city for the overage fees. Eventually, in October 2002, the officer responsible for monitoring the city’s contract with the pager carrier decided he was tired of acting as a “bill collector” and reviewed the transcripts for Quon’s text messages. He determined that many were not work-related, and some were sexually explicit. OPD’s Internal Affairs division conducted a subsequent investigation; their report concluded that Quon had violated OPD rules and was allegedly disciplined.

Quon unsuccessfully brought suit in a U.S. District Court alleging a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights when the Internal Affairs division obtained and reviewed the transcripts of his pager messages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed in part, stating that Quon had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his text messages and concluded that the search was unreasonable. The Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari challenging the Court of Appeal’s holding.

Held: The Court unanimously held that even if Quon had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his text messages, the audit was work-related and thus did not violate the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was reversed, and the case was remanded for further proceedings.

Something to Consider

Hamilton obviously believed that the adoption of the proposed Constitution would result in an effective government. If a country were developing a new constitution today, should it pattern it after the U.S. Constitution? What factors might influence the decision? (Follows The Federalist Papers)