Federal Employee Has Partial Win On Discriminatory E-Mail Policy Challenge

In Gee v. Kempthorne, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6695 (D ID, Jan. 30, 2007), an Idaho federal district court has dismissed as moot a First Amendment and RFRA claim by a Mormon employee of the Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation, but has permitted the employee to move ahead with an equal protection claim for a declaratory judgment that in the future, regardless of the Department's computer use policy, Plaintiff may not be treated differently in the enforcement of those policies because of his religious beliefs. The case grew out of limitations placed on plaintiff's use of his office computer for non-government business after he sent out e-mails objecting to other e-mails he had received from Department employees about recognition of June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.