Schmidt v. Ameritech Corp.

DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judge.

We have moved some distance from the days when an employee “sold his soul to the company store” when he was hired. Plaintiffs Thomas and Cynthia Schmidt may have thought otherwise, however, when defendant Ameriteeh Corporation decided to use its unique access to its Message Unit Detail, or MUD, records to investigate what Thomas was doing while he was on a leave of absence from his Ameriteeh job. Thomas and Cynthia began this suit for invasion of privacy in Cook County Circuit Court, but Ameriteeh removed it to federal court, claiming that Thomas’s claims were…