If you work for the government and use a government provided Blackberry, can the government read your text messages? The 9th Circuit says “no”, and the Supreme Court today granted certiorari.

The case revolves around a police officer who used his government provided Blackberry to send hundreds of personal messages to his wife, his girlfriend and another officer, many of which were sexually explicit. The police department, during a review of officers that routinely exceeded their monthly character limit on the devices, obtained copies of the text messages from the service provider. The 9th Circuit called it an unreasonable search under the the 4th amendment. The Court now has to decide whether or not the officer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the messages.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., is sponsoring legislation to the Congress that would require a national mandate for ignition interlock use in all convicted DUI offenders.   Ten states already have mandatory ignition interlock requirements for all DUI offenders, and most have mandatory use for repeat offenders or high level offenders. The national law would withhold federal transportation funds from and state that does not adopt the law within 6 months. Lautenberg unveiled the plan during one of the most dangerous weeks on the roadways.
New Jersey, surprisingly, is not one of the states mandating ignition interlock usage. Instead, the devices may be requested by a judge as part of an offender’s sentencing after the offender has served a full license suspension.  Lautenberg is backing up his recommendation with facts from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staying interlock devices reduce the occurrence of repeat arrests by 73%. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also supports the mandatory use requirement.
The American Beverage Institute is opposed to the measure, saying it takes the power out of the hands of each judge to determine an appropriate punishment based on the severity of an individual crime. The ABI also asserts MADD’s ultimate goal will be to have the devices in all cars, a goal the ant-DUI activist group denies having.  Though somewhat surprisgin, Lautenberg’s proposal does look like another bill that went through a House subcommittee for federal highway funding earlier this year. Even if the bill does not pass at this point, it appears the trend is moving in the direction of mandatory ignition interlock devices nationwide.