Preview of Member Only Content
For full access: 
or Become a Member 
Searching government offices and computers
By Barry Tarlow
Read more
RICO Report columns.
Government agencies, like private
employers, are entitled to ensure that employees comply with workplace rules. See
Connick v. Meyers, 461 U.S. 138, 143 (1983) (employee may be terminated for
speech that did not touch on matter of public concern that could affect morale
of workplace). Private employers are free to search employee work areas without
probable cause to suspect wrongdoing, and certainly without first obtaining
authorization from a judge. Yet government employers, as state actors, are
limited by the Fourth Amendment in their ability to intrude into employees’
protected privacy interests.
A fairly typical concern in the
modern workplace is the misuse of computers by employees who surf the Internet
for non-work-related purposes. See Urofsky v. Gilmore, 216 F.3d 401, 404
(4th Cir. 2000)(holding constitutional Virginia statute prohibiting state
employees from viewing sexually explicit material on state-owned or leased
computers). Sometimes an employee’s misuse o
Want to read more?
The Champion archive is reserved for NACDL members.
NACDL members, please login to read the rest of this article.
Not a member? Join now.
Or click here to see an overview of NACDL Member benefits.
See what NACDL members say about us.
To read the current issue of The Champion in its entirety, click here.
- Media inquiries: Contact NACDL's Director of Public Affairs & Communications Ivan J. Dominguez at 202-465-7662 or idominguez@nacdl.org
- Academic Requests: Full articles of The Champion Magazine are available for academic and research purposes in the WestLaw and LexisNexis databases.