HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania’s highest court says the right to personal privacy in government records is guaranteed by the state constitution, as it reversed a lower court ruling involving public school employees’ home addresses.
Tuesday’s unanimous Supreme Court ruling came in a seven-year-old Right-to-Know Law case.
In the 33-page decision, the justices say the right to informational privacy may not be violated unless outweighed by a public interest favoring disclosure. They sent the case back to the Commonwealth Court, which ruled last year that employees must first have a chance to fight such a request for their information.
The case was prompted by requests to school districts for the names and addresses of all school employees. The state’s largest teachers’ union sued to stop it and asked the court to declare the information exempt from public access.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.