FBI v Apple
A research resource developed by Professor Clark D. Cunningham, W. Lee Burge Chair in Law & Ethics, Georgia State University College of Law
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Magistrate Waxse Warrant Cases (D. Kansas)
David J. Waxse served as a full-time Magistrate Judge for U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas from 1999-2014 and continues to serve as a Recalled Magistrate. Judge Waxse is a Past-President of the Kansas Bar Association and past chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges of the American Bar Association.
David J. Waxse official biography (U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas)
Magistrate Judge Waxse Retires from Full-time Service, Press Release, Feb. 24, 2014
Ann E. Marimow & Craig Timberg, Low-level federal judges balking at law enforcement requests for electronic evidence, Washington Post, Apr. 24, 2014
Patrick J. Cotter, Magistrates' Revolt: Unexpected Resistance to Federal Government Efforts to Get "General Warrants" for Electronic Information, The National Law Review, May 15, 2014
Reid Day, Comment, Let the Magistrates Revolt: A Review of Search Warrant Applications for Electronic Information Possessed by Online Services, 64 U. Kan. L. Rev. 491 (2015)
William Clark, Note, Protecting the Privacies of Digital Life: Riley v California, the Fourth Amendment's Particularity Requrement and Search Protocols for Cell Phone Search Warrants, 56 Boston College L. Rev. 1981, 1997-2007 (2015)
Adam M. Gershowitz, The Post-Riley Search Warrant: Search Protocols and Particularity in Cell Phone Searches, 69 Vanderbilt L.Rev. 585, 617-21 (2016)
On June 26, 2014, In the Matter of the Search of Premises Known as a Nextel Cellular Telephone Judge Waxse denied a cell phone search warrant application that would have authorized "examination of all of the data contained in such cellular telephone hardware ... to view the data to determine whehter it falls within the items to be seized." He noted that the 4th Amendment requires that a warrant must "describe the things to be seized with sufficient particularity" and "contain sufficiently particularized language that creates a nexus between the suspected crime and the things to be seized." He cited with approval and discussed at length Judge Facciola's warrant decisions from March 2014. On August 4, 2014, In the Matter of the Search of the Premises Known as Three Cellphones and One Micro-SD Card he denied a warrant application that sought authorization to seize from three cell phones all "text messages, picture messages, pictures, voicemails, calls received, outgoing calls, and phone book logs." On December 30, 2014, In the Matter of the Search of Cellular Telephones within Evidence Facility Drug Enforcement Administration, Kansas City District Office, Judge Waxse denied a warrant application that sought authorization to seize "any names, addresses, telephone numbers, text messages, digital images, video depictions, or other identification data or communications" from five cell phones without specifying a search protocol."Preventing the issuance of general warrants in the context of electronically stored information ("ESI") has been the chief aim of this Court's recent opinions." Id., 2014 WL7793690 at *3. Judge Waxse's recent, very detailed, opinion, In the Matter of the Search of premises known as: Three Hotmail Email accounts, provides a thorough review of both caselaw and scholarship in this area and applies the reasoning of his prior cell phone decisions to deny a warrant application to seize the content of all email information in three different accounts held by Microsoft. In particular he makes the case for the use of court-appointed special masters, potentially assisted by independent vendors, to review aggregate data and then turn over only responsive items to the government pursuant to a warrant that meets constitutional standards for particularity, citing approval of such an approach for searching computer data by the Vermont Supreme Court, 71 A3d 1158 (2012).. 2016 WL 1239916 at * 21-22.
In the Matter of Applications for Search Warrants for Information Associated with Target Email Address, Nos. 12-MJ-8119-DJW, 12-MJ-8191-DJW, 2012 WL 4383917 (D. Kansas Sept. 21, 2012) (Waxse, U.S. Mag. J.)
In the Matter of Applications for Search Warrants for Information Associated with Target Email Accounts/Skype, Nos. 13-MJ-8163-JPO, 13-MJ-8164-DJW, 13-MJ8165-DJW, 13-MJ-8166-JPO, 13-MJ-8167-DJW, 2013 WL 46475554 (D. Kansas Aug. 27, 2013) (Waxse, U.S. Mag. J.)
In the Matter of the Search of Premises Known as a Nextel Cellular Telephone, No. 14-MJ-8005-DJW, 2014 WL 2898262 (D. Kansas June 26, 2014) (Waxse, U.S. Mag. J.)
In the Matter of the Search of the Premises Known as Three Cellphones and One Micro-SD Card, No L4-MJ-8013-DJW, 2014 WL 3845157 (D. Kansas Aug 4, 2014) (Waxse, U.S. Mag. J.)
In the Matter of the Search of Cellular Telephones within Evidence Facility Drug Enforcement Administration, Kansas City District Office, No. 14-MJ-8017-DJW, 2014 WL7793690 (D. Kansas Dec. 30, 2014) (Waxse, U.S. Mag. J.)