Church and Pastors Not Liable for Violations of Computer Privacy Laws

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a motion to dismiss filed by Bill Weiler, John Masters, and Kyle Lewis. In doing so, the court dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint, which alleged that a church and its pastors violated the Stored Wire and Electronic Communications and Transactional Records Act, 18 U.S.C. 2701, by accessing private information on the plaintiff’s computer and information stored in a cloud based computer storage site. The court agreed with Messrs Weiler, Masters, and Lewis that the plaintiff could not maintain a cause of action under the Act and dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint with prejudice.