HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s highest court has agreed to consider whether state police should have to disclose more details about how they use information from social media to investigate crimes and make their own hiring decisions.

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it will hear an appeal by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of a May decision by a Commonwealth Court that upheld the police agency’s decision to black out large sections of the document they provided.

The justices will review whether the lower court should have privately examined the redacted portions of the state police’s social media monitoring policy and other evidence before overturning the Office of Open Records’ order granting access to the ACLU.

They will also consider whether the Commonwealth Court panel should have relied heavily in making the decision on an affidavit by the state police’s criminal investigations director.

The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, an industry group, filed a brief urging the high court to take the appeal.

“The actual disputed records are the best evidence in an open records appeal, and they provide the most relevant evidence to dispute or confirm affidavits provided by government agencies,” the association argued to the court.

Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said Commonwealth Court “essentially said, ‘We don’t have to look at the actual records in this case, we’ll just take PSP’s word for it.’ That’s troubling from a public access perspective because it takes the best evidence in a case — the actual records — and removes them from the decision-making process, relying instead on indirect evidence and leaving the public without any real opportunity to challenge.”

The state ACLU asked for the police agency’s regulation that covers policies and procedures for its troopers when using social media monitoring software. The ACLU appealed after getting a copy of the policy with multiple sections blacked out.

Redacted sections addressed how and when troopers should use open sources during investigations, what approval they need and when they should go undercover. The agency also blacked out a section on using social media for employment background checks.