Easy call

Without David Souter (see today's other editorial), the U.S. Supreme Court got one right Thursday. The justices ruled unanimously that a California police department did not violate the rights of officers when it went through the personal text messages they had sent from their government-owned pagers.

An appeals court ruled the searches violated the Fourth Amendment, holding that the officers had a reasonable expectation of privacy because an informal policy allowed them to send personal messages as long as they reimbursed the department for the costs.

But the reimbursement policy is irrelevant. As long as someone else owns the pager, the user should be under no illusion that his communication is private.

If you don’t want anybody seeing your personal e-mails, text messages or pages, the first thing you should do is use your own cell phone or computer.