Ohio Supreme Court ruling: e-mails are public records.

• Position: E-MAIL - Brief article

In a landmark ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court decided that electronic messages that address government business--including deleted e-mails--are records protected by the state's open records laws, whether they are stored in a public or private computer.

In a unanimous ruling prompted by legal action filed by The Toledo Blade, the justices ordered Seneca County commissioners to retrieve deleted e-mails from their computer hard drives related to their decision to demolish a historic courthouse in Tiffin, Ohio. However, the court did not address whether the lawmakers would need to produce e-mail and text messages from their private accounts that dealt with public business, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

In the decision, Justice Paul Pfeifer noted that deleted e-mails constituted a "novel issue" that had not yet been become settled law. The commissioners had claimed that having to meet records requests for e-mails would place an undue burden on the county's time and finances, but...