Section 30 Public Employers

• Library: Employer-Employee Law 2008

To establish a violation of Fourth Amendment rights, a public employee must establish a legitimate expectation of privacy in the location searched or the item seized. United States v. Simons,
206 F.3d 392, 398 (4^th Cir. 2000).

In Leventhal v. Knapek, 266 F.3d 64 (2^nd Cir. 2001), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether a public employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his office computer, which was searched by his employer. “Without a reasonable expectation of privacy, a workplace search by a public employer will not violate the Fourth Amendment, regardless of the search’s nature and scope.” Leventhal, 266 F.3d at 73. The court found that the employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy because he had a private...