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E.D.Va.: CIA can search its employees' office computers

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A CIA lawyer employee has no claim that the CIA searched and monitored his government issued computer as a part of maintaining his security clearance. Ciralsky v. CIA, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120617 (E.D. Va. November 15, 2010): Defendants are correct that the Fourth Amendment and FISA claims are far too general and do not satisfy civil pleading standards. Ciralsky has not alleged anything other than broad, conclusory statements about a search conducted by unknown officials. An equally important issue, which neither the defendants nor plaintiffs address, is that even if the allegations were more specific, the Fourth Amendment claim would not be legally viable. The Supreme Court, in City of Ontario v. Quon, 130 S. Ct. 2619 (2010), found that a police department did not violate an employee’s Fourth Amendment rights when it monitored the employee's text messages on a government-issued pager because “the search was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on November 17, 2010 (boomark / email).