Facts: Chelsea Chaney was a seventeen-year-old high school student in Fayette County, Georgia. At a county-wide Internet
Question:
Facts: Chelsea Chaney was a seventeen-year-old high school student in Fayette County, Georgia. At a county-wide Internet safety seminar, Curtis Cearley, the District’s technology director, presented a PowerPoint slideshow to illustrate the permanent and often-embarrassing nature of social media postings. The first slide features a cartoon of a curious daughter who discovers her mother’s old Facebook page, listing her hobbies as "body art, bad boys, and jello shooters.” The next slide showed Chaney in a bikini posing with a life-size cutout of rapper Snoop Dogg making the point that “Once It’s There, It’s There to Stay”. The slide included Chaney’s full name. Cearley distributed copies to everyone in attendance. Cearley had found Chaney’s photo while searching Facebook for materials to use in his presentation. Her page had a semi-private setting that allowed her Facebook "friends" and "friends of friends" to view her page. Neither Chaney nor her parents consented to the use of her picture.
Chaney was embarrassed and humiliated. In her view, Cearley had publicly implied that she was a sexually promiscuous abuser of alcohol who should be more careful about her Internet postings. In fact, she contended, the picture was taken on a family vacation that did not involve sex or alcohol.
Chaney sued, claiming that Cearley and the District violated her constitutional right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment. The District filed a motion to dismiss.
Questions:
1. Did Chaney have a reasonable expectation of privacy in her bikini Facebook picture?
2. What does a person need to show to establish a reasonable expectation of privacy?
3. Was Chaney able to prove either of these elements?
Step by Step Answer:
Business Law and the Legal Environment
ISBN: 978-1337736954
8th edition
Authors: Jeffrey F. Beatty, Susan S. Samuelson, Patricia Sanchez Abril