The Supreme Court has announced that it will decide the scope of the privacy right that a public or government employee has in the text messages sent or received on a device paid for by their employer.  The case arises from a police department in Ontario, California.  As Adam Liptak of the New York Times reports, "Supreme Court Takes Texting Case," the case opens the door on a number of employee privacy issues:

• “What are the legal boundaries of an employee’s privacy in this interconnected, electronic-communication age, one in which thoughts and ideas that would have been spoken personally and privately in ages past are now instantly text-messaged to friend and family via hand-held, computer-assisted electronic devices?”