The appeals court ruing said Corzine had "properly asserted executive privilege" in his refusal to release the messages between himself and Carla Katz, who at the time was also the president of a state employees union.

A lower court had ordered the release of the e-mails on the grounds they were public records, but The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger said the appellate judges agreed with Katz that the communications were private because they included some correspondence about contract negotiations between her union and the state.

The higher court agreed that the e-mails were government records, but also agreed that Corzine was within his right to refuse to disclose them.

The newspaper said that while Corzine and Katz were no longer a item, the fight over their e-mails was likely to continue since New Jersey Republican Party official had previously vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.