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6-5-2007 National: Excuse Me, You Want to Search My What?
.A new firefighter — career or volunteer — walks into a firehouse where computers, desks, chairs, turnout gear, lockers and other workplace tools are most often furnished by the fire department. We take these tools for granted. Before too long, they're ours. Our locker, our computer, our office — our home away from home.

But when a fire department manager is concerned about alleged wrongdoing on the part of a firefighter, the concept of “our” locker, “our” computer and “our” workplace collides head-on with the fire department's interest in a workplace as free of inappropriate or illegal activities as possible, and a consequent interest in looking inside those lockers, computers and desks.

So does an employer have the right to search an employee's desk, computer, file cabinet, locker or other workspace? Surprisingly, this is a relatively new legal question. The first time the U.S. Supreme Court dealt with the workplace-search issue was in O'Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709, in 1987. Dr. Magno Ortega, then a physician at Napa State Hospital in California, was the subject of allegations of sexual harassment and possible theft of hospital property. Hospital Executive Director Dennis O'Connor suspended Ortega pending investigation. During Ortega's suspension period, O'Connor and other hospital officials entered Ortega's office and searched his file cabinets and desk. That search yielded materials that were subsequently used to support Ortega's dismissal.

Ortega sued, alleging that O'Connor had violated Ortega's Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches. When the case was before the U.S. Supreme Court, the court reversed an appellate-court grant of summary judgment and sent the case back for review. ..more.. : by John Rukavina
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