Griffis v. Pinal County

OPINION

PELANDER, Chief Judge.

¶ 1 This case raises a central issue of whether personal electronic mail messages (e-mails) sent or received by a government employee constitute “public records” that are presumptively open to public inspection under Arizona’s Public Records Law, A.R.S. §§ 39-101 through 39-161, simply because the e-mails were transmitted on and are retained in a government-owned computer system. The trial court ruled that they do and, therefore, ordered appellee Pinal County to disclose to appellee Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. (PNI) all such e-mails, after redaction of certain…