District Court of New Jersey Continues Growing National Trend Permitting Employers to View “Publicly” Available Social Media Posts

Following a growing recent national trend, Judge Martini of the District Court of New Jersey issued summary judgment to Defendants Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corporation (“MONOC”) and two of its senior management employees on August 20, 2013, in a claim brought by a former nurse and EMT, Deborah Ehling, who accused MONOC of retaliation and other claims. 

Ehling’s claims, in part, arose from MONOC’s alleged improper access of Ehling’s private Facebook posts.  Holding that MONOC did not improperly access those posts under the Federal Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. §§2701-11, (“SCA”) or New Jersey’s common law invasion of privacy tort, the District Court found that MONOC’s receipt of the communications from an authorized user satisfied an exception to the SCA.

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