SPRINGFIELD - Symbolically signaling a common text message "BBL," (Be Back Later), the Champaign City Council took no action Tuesday night in response to an Illinois judge ruling this week that text messages can be supboenaed. An appeal to the ruling is planned, the News-Gazette reports.
News-Gazette reporter Patrick Wade had asked the city in July 2011 for "all electronic communications, including cellphone text messages, sent and received by members of the city council and the mayor during city council meetings and study sessions since and including May 3."
On Monday, Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt ordered the city to turn over the electronic messages.
Schmidt's order supports an earlier decision by the Illinois Attorney General's Office's public-access counselor that the city is required to turn over the messages under Illinois' Freedom of Information Act. The case went to Sangamon County because all appeals of the public-access counselor's decisions go either there or to Cook County.
