Judges bar access to elected official cell phones

In a ruling this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said a local newspaper cannot view all of the records of two Pittsburgh City Council members' taxpayer-funded cell phones, including call logs and text messages. 

In an unanimous ruling, the Court said the lawmakers have a right to privacy despite using the city-funded phones for personal and political purposes. The case was brought to court by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in 2003 after it sought records for the city-owned cell phones. The newspaper wanted to know which calls were personal in nature and if the city council members reimbursed taxpayers for the use. 

“Appellants have failed to set forth any cogent argument that the disclosure of the telephone numbers ... would serve a strong public function,” Justice Seamus McCaffery wrote in the majority opinion.

A similar ruling in May by a judge in Massachusetts barred a local newspaper from viewing the phone records of elected officials using city-owned cell phones, some of which racked up monthly bills of $400 or more.  

The struggle for the public's right to know is playing out across the country. In Colorado, The Denver Post is suing Gov. Bill Ritter for 19 months of cell phone records his office has refused to release. In New Jersey, a city councilwoman recently won the right to review the records of all city-owned cell phones in her bid to uncover city employees using government property for personal use. 

The public's access to government cell phone records has been instrumental in recent years and the latest rulings could have a very negative impact on a newspaper's ability to uncover hidden truths about elected officials. Just this year, the extramarital affairs of the former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick were exposed by the Detroit Free Press after the newspaper obtained text messages from the mayor's cell phone.