FBI v Apple, Microsoft v Department of Justice, and Post-Riley Cell Phone Searches: Rediscovering the Fourth Amendment
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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WHAT'S WRONG WITH CELL PHONE SEARCH WARANTS AND OTHER WARRANTS FOR ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION
A research resource developed by Professor Clark D. Cunningham, W. Lee Burge Chair in Law & Ethics, Georgia State University College of Law
Back to Burge Chair Home Page: www.ClarkCunningham.org
Back to FBI v Apple Home Page
Magistrate Waxse: Hotmail Case
In the Matter of the Search of premises known as: Three Hotmail Email accounts ,No. 16-MJ-8036-DJW, 2016 WL 1239916 (D. Kansas March 28, 2016)
-- "The proposed search warrant ... orders Microsoft (the Email Provider) to disclose to the government copies of ... [t]he contents of all emails associated with the account ... [and] [a]ll records or other information stored at any time by an invididual using the account, including address books, contact and buddy lists, calendar data, pictures and files"
-- "If the Court were to authorize this warrant, it would be contradicting the manifest purpose of the Fourth Amendment's particularity requirement"
Judge Waxse's very detailed opinion provides a thorough review of both caselaw and scholarship criticizing the government's use of search warrants for cloud-based email and cell phones and makes the case for forensic search methods that use 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).
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.
More information on Magistrate Waxse and his other decisions