Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers
Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers has been charged with hearing the case involving the Palin administration and their use of private email accounts to conduct state business. Wednesday, September 15, 2008.
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The battle over Gov. Sarah Palin's email accounts continued Wednesday in Superior Court. The debate is over whether private email accounts should or can be used for state business. The case is the first of its kind in Alaska and, possibly, the nation.

"I did not issue the order requiring the governor and her staff to discontinue using private email," said superior court Judge Craig Stowers.

But Stowers could change his mind, and Andree McLeod is hoping he will. The self-described

Don Mitchell
Representing Andree McLeod in her lawsuit against the state is attorney Don Mitchell (pictured). Wednesday, September 15, 2008.
government watchdog has been trying for months to get emails from the governor's office through the state's public records act. What she got instead were redacted documents. Fed up, McLeod sued.

"To me, what's going on is: we've got communications being conducted - state communications being conducted at the state level in the state's highest office between members," McLeod said. "To me, that's a secret government and to me, a secret government is a corrupt government."

But the state says this case is not about secret communication, but whether laws allow state employees to use private accounts.

"That state employees cannot use private email accounts for any state business -- that simply is not what the law says, and that's not

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relief this court needs to grant at this point in time to protect Ms. McLeod's ability to get public records," said assistant attorney general Mike Mitchell.

Some say the case boils down to what 20th-century laws say is considered "public record" in this 21st-century age of communication.

"These are public records," said Don Mitchell, McLeod's attorney. "They're outside the system, the access is being obstructed, and right now it's still being obstructed. Until such time that an employee

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in the office of the governor is ordered by the governor or her chief of staff to call up AOL or call up Yahoo! to go get these things and give them to us to comply (with law), they're still being obstructed."

The state has until Tuesday to find out exactly how many of the governor's staffers are using private accounts.

"In the meantime, if the governor or employees in the office of the governor are still using private email accounts to conduct state business, all of those emails, every one of them, have to be preserved," said Stowers. "They can't be deleted."

A ruling is expected after the November election.

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