Sarah Palin ordered to preserve Yahoo! emails

Found on The Register on Monday, 13 October 2008
Browse Politics

Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers ordered Alaska's attorney general to recover messages contained in a Yahoo email account maintained by Palin.

Friday's court order follows revelations that the Alaska governor has conducted email discussions concerning official state business from a Yahoo email address.

Critics say her use of email accounts outside of the state's official system violate open government laws that require such communications to be available to members of the public.

Members of the Bush administration has also been accused of using private accounts to send emails conducting official White House business.

More recently, Vice President Dick Cheney's office has acknowledged that an entire week's worth of email is missing from White House archives.

Either governments lose confidental data which is not meant to be public, or it loses data which is meant to be preserved. Why is there no law which not only requires politicians to abide the rules, but also makes them lose all their positions if they do? Something like a "one strike and you're out" rule.