Pennsylvania Court: State Workers Can Delete Emails

A Commonwealth Court panel ruled today that state workers may delete emails in their inboxes at their discretion. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, joined with other news organizations, had sued the state in an attempt to have emails stored for up to two years. The three-person panel, led by President Judge Dan Pellegrini, dismissed the case.

The suit centered on the state’s Right to Know law, signed into law in 2008. The Gazette’s attorneys argued the policy that allowed state workers to delete emails violated the spirit of the law. If a state employee deletes an email from the inbox, it is permanently deleted in five days from the state server.

“Simply, the RTKL [Right to Know Law] governs whether records currently in existence must be disclosed,” the panel wrote in its decision. “Because [the law] provides that nothing in the RTKL affects that policy, PG Publishing has failed to allege facts demonstrating a violation of the RTKL.”

In short, the right to know law doesn’t establish any records retention policy for state agencies. PG Publishing, the legal name of the Gazette, had sued Governor’s Office of Administration and The Pennsylvania Department of Education. The paper filed suit after getting just five emails in response to a query about former Education Secretary Ron Tomalis’ work for Tom Corbett as a special advisor. The paper wanted emails stored for two years, and state agencies instructed to not delete any emails.

A lawyer told PennLive he wasn’t sure if PG would appeal to the state supreme court.

PA Court ruling on email deletion