California's top court agreed Friday to decide whether government employees' personal texts and e-mails are subject to disclosure under public records law.

At least one other state high court, Alaska's, has already required disclosure and preservation of those communications if they deal with government business. Arizona's highest court has ruled that private communications with a "substantial nexus" to government activity are subject to disclosure.

Still, there's been a hodgepodge of lower-court state rulings nationwide on the topic, leaving much of the country's public officials across the 50 states to conceal their official communications from public review. Federal officials' private electronic communications, however, are subject to the Freedom of Information Act if they concern government business.

The case the California Supreme Court agreed to review centers on a San Jose City Hall activist's bid to acquire officials' private e-mail surrounding a redevelopment project. A local judge last year ordered the disclosure, but a state appellate panel reversed the decision in March.

"The issue presented is whether those private communications, which are not stored on City servers and are not directly accessible by the City, are nonetheless 'public records' within the meaning of the California Public Records Act," the appeals court ruled (PDF). "We conclude that the Act does not require public access to communications between public officials using exclusively private cell phones or e-mail accounts."

The court noted that California's open-records law was adopted in 1968, well before the age of e-mail and texting. The court punted, saying the outcome should be decided by the California Legislature, not the courts. The losing side appealed, and the California Supreme Court stepped up to the plate Friday, announcing it would decide the issue.

The justices did not say when they would rule.