The Detroit News reports:

  Text messages that led to perjury and other charges against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick could remain shielded for at least another three months -- and a judge reviewing the case is expressing doubts they can ever be made public.
  Wayne County Judge Robert Colombo, backtracking slightly, said the federal Stored Communications Act may prevent him from obtaining the messages from the city's provider, SkyTel, with just a subpoena. But Colombo said he may be able to get the messages by ordering Christine Beatty, the mayor's former chief of staff, to request them from the company.
  "There are questions," he said.

  There are questions, but fortunately there are answers, too. To compel the text messages, which are more than 180 days old, a mere subpoena is enough under 18 U.S.C. 2703. And the messages already obtained can be used regardless of whether they were originally obtained legally because there is no statutory suppression remedy in the statute for violations (I think one should be added, but there isn't one now). Plus, there aren't any Fourth Amendment issues under O'Connor v. Ortega because the Detroit mayor's office had a workplace monitoring policy eliminating privacy in communications sent over goverment-provided networks. So while the legal issues may confuse the judge for a bit, those texts are admissible.