Yesterday, the California 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled that a juror (Arturo Ramirez) must make his Facebook posts available to the court. As some of you may recall, this is an ongoing saga which is unlikely to end with this ruling. The attorney representing the juror, Kenneth Rosenfeld, has already filed an appeal with the California Supreme Court.
This issue initially arose from Arturo Ramirez's service as a juror on a criminal trial. Ramirez along with 11 other jurors convicted several members of the Killa Mobb gang of serious criminal offenses. At the conclusion of trial, attorneys for the convicted defendants were contacted by a juror on the case who claimed that during the trial Ramirez had made and received comments about the case on his Facebook page.
Defense counsel, which issued subpoenas to Facebook and Ramirez, want access to Ramirez's Facebook page. Defense counsel claim that Ramirez's Facebook page, which is not publicly available, will show that he was biased or improperly contacted by outside parties during the trial.
Facebook, citing the Stored Communications Act of 1986, refused to turn over the postings despite receiving the subpoena. Facebook, however, said that Ramirez, who has been given copies of his postings, can, if he so desires, give the postings to defense attorneys. To date, Ramirez has refused to turn over the posts despite receiving the subpoena. Instead, he filed a petition for a writ of prohibition to vacate the trial court's order requiring him to release the information. In appealing the trial court's decision ordering the release of the posts, Rosenfeld, stated that "in actuality, I'm defending the privacy rights of 500 million Facebook users--this case has implications for anyone who uses social media."
For more background on this case go here.