New Jersey Supreme Court closes a gaping loophole in the state’s open records law

Public officials cannot hide discussions of public business in private email accounts, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.

The decision closes a major loophole in the state’s open records law. It means the secret back-channel conversations conducted on personal phones and private servers are no longer beyond the reach of the public.

The case began simply enough. A resident named Alex Rosetti asked the Ramapo-Indian Hills Regional High School Board of Education for records. He wanted email logs showing how board members used personal accounts to talk about school business. The board said no.

It argued the logs were not government records because they sat on private servers. It said producing them would be too hard.

The court was not impressed.

Writing for the court, Justice Pierre-Louis said logs of government-related emails are indeed public records, even when pulled from personal Yahoo or Gmail accounts. The court did grant the board one concession. Rosetti’s original request was too broad. He wanted logs of entire personal accounts. The court said no to that. It said the board only has to produce logs of the specific emails that discuss public business. Everything else stays private.

Board members must now search their own accounts. They must pull emails to or from other board members about board business. They must log the sender, recipient, date, subject, and attachments. Then they must certify under oath that they have searched properly.

The court was direct. It said agencies should strongly advise their employees and elected officials to stop using personal email for public work. The message is simple. If you talk about the people’s business, the people have a right to know about it.

The ruling takes effect immediately.