Press association looking at personal e-mail ruling

The Louisiana Press Association is taking a closer look at a judge’s recent decision and a new opinion by the attorney general deeming personal e-mails sent via government e-mail to be off-limits to the public. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has made public an opinion issued to Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham, saying e-mails of a “purely personal nature sent on a public e-mail account with no relation to public business are not public records subject to disclosure” under the Louisiana Public Records law. The issue originally arose in a stalking case against former Alcohol & Tobacco Control Commissioner Murphy Painter. In January, State District Judge Mike Caldwell ruled Painter could not have access to the personal e-mail of former employee Kelli Suire, who claims in the lawsuit that Painter sexually harassed and stalked her. Painter, who is also accused of performing illegal background checks on more than 1,500 people, sought access to personal e-mails on Suire’s state computer at the Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, where she now works. But both the court ruling and the attorney general’s opinion could more broadly limit public access to the correspondence of thousands of other elected officials and government employees throughout Louisiana. LPA Executive Director Pam Mitchell tells Daily Report the organization’s attorneys are reviewing the decisions of both the judge and the attorney general’s office, and the executive board likely will take up the matter at the LPA annual convention next week in Marksville. “The problem is the scope,” Mitchell says. “Nobody has a problem with, ‘Honey, pick up a gallon of milk on the way home.’ But the big question is, who decides what else constitutes ‘personal?’ ” —Penny Font