HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania courts' broad exemption from the Right-to-Know Law shields judicial records from public scrutiny even when they are in the hands of agencies that are subject to the law, a three-judge panel of the state Commonwealth Court has ruled.

Open-records advocates said enforcement of the 19-month-old law could be hindered by Wednesday's decision, which revolves around what Lackawanna County officials have described only as "inappropriate" e-mails that prompted the suspension last summer of the county's domestic-relations director, Patrick Luongo.

At issue is whether the e-mails should be released — as the state Office of Open Records argues — because they are kept in the county court's computer system, or withheld because they are records of a judicial agency not covered by the law.

Luongo's salary is paid by the county, but he is supervised by the judiciary. His suspension was approved by the administrator of the Lackawanna County Common Pleas Court, said county Chief of Staff Maria Elkins on Friday.

Judge Dan Pellegrini, author of the panel's strongly worded decision, said:

"Just because the county provides logistic support to the courts does not mean that every record stored on what the county provides as part of its function to support the court makes it a county record — those records always remain the records of the court," he said.