aGameOfThrones
06-19-2014, 03:00 AM
The Second Circuit has handed down a very important new Fourth Amendment case, United States v. Ganias. In an opinion by Judge Chin, the court held that the government violates the Fourth Amendment when it indefinitely retains computer files that were seized pursuant to a search warrant but are not responsive to the warrant.
By way of background, courts have long held that the practicality of computer search and seizure allows government agents to seize computers and search them later for responsive files. In Ganias, the Second Circuit makes clear that the government’s right to overseize is temporary, and that it has no right to continue to retain the non-responsive files indefinitely. The court doesn’t say exactly when the government has to destroy, delete, or return its copy of the non-responsive files. But the Second Circuit does make clear that the government has such a duty: Continued retention of the files is a Fourth Amendment “seizure,” the Court holds, and eventually the retention goes on for so long that the retention is unreasonable. Put simply, individuals have a right to the deletion or return of non-responsive computer files.
This is a hugely important case.
A quick recap of the facts. In 2003, the government obtained a warrant to search the Ganias’s accounting business for evidence of fraud. When executing the 2003 warrant, the agents did not seize any physical computers. Instead, they made images of several computers (that is, perfect copies of every file on the computers) and took away the images while leaving the original computers behind. The agents copied the images onto 19 DVDs. Investigators took their time in searching the DVDs, but by a year later they had searched the images for the files that were responsive to the warrant. The agents kept the DVDs, which they saw as government property. Later on, agents came to think that Ganias was involved in tax offenses, too. They realized that the evidence of tax crimes could be on the DVDs in their possession. The agents obtained an additional warrant to search the DVDs again, this time for evidence of tax offenses. The government ended up searching the DVDs under the second warrant in 2006, about two-and-a-half years after it had initially entered Ganias’s business and copied his computer files pursuant to the 2003 warrant.
The Second Circuit held that retaining the files on the DVDs that were not responsive to the first warrant was an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Court suppressed the fruits of the second warrant because that search should never have occurred. Here’s the key language:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/06/18/court-adopts-a-fourth-amendment-right-to-the-deletion-of-non-responsive-computer-files/
By way of background, courts have long held that the practicality of computer search and seizure allows government agents to seize computers and search them later for responsive files. In Ganias, the Second Circuit makes clear that the government’s right to overseize is temporary, and that it has no right to continue to retain the non-responsive files indefinitely. The court doesn’t say exactly when the government has to destroy, delete, or return its copy of the non-responsive files. But the Second Circuit does make clear that the government has such a duty: Continued retention of the files is a Fourth Amendment “seizure,” the Court holds, and eventually the retention goes on for so long that the retention is unreasonable. Put simply, individuals have a right to the deletion or return of non-responsive computer files.
This is a hugely important case.
A quick recap of the facts. In 2003, the government obtained a warrant to search the Ganias’s accounting business for evidence of fraud. When executing the 2003 warrant, the agents did not seize any physical computers. Instead, they made images of several computers (that is, perfect copies of every file on the computers) and took away the images while leaving the original computers behind. The agents copied the images onto 19 DVDs. Investigators took their time in searching the DVDs, but by a year later they had searched the images for the files that were responsive to the warrant. The agents kept the DVDs, which they saw as government property. Later on, agents came to think that Ganias was involved in tax offenses, too. They realized that the evidence of tax crimes could be on the DVDs in their possession. The agents obtained an additional warrant to search the DVDs again, this time for evidence of tax offenses. The government ended up searching the DVDs under the second warrant in 2006, about two-and-a-half years after it had initially entered Ganias’s business and copied his computer files pursuant to the 2003 warrant.
The Second Circuit held that retaining the files on the DVDs that were not responsive to the first warrant was an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Court suppressed the fruits of the second warrant because that search should never have occurred. Here’s the key language:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/06/18/court-adopts-a-fourth-amendment-right-to-the-deletion-of-non-responsive-computer-files/