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Seizing data for 2.5 years amounts to "general warrant," court says

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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/seizing-data-for-2-5-years-amounts-to-general-warrant-court-says/

  A federal appeals court has reversed an accountant's tax-evasion
  conviction because the government seized his computer data and held it
  for more than 2.5 years -- a breach of the constitutional right to be
  free from unreasonable searches.

  The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the
  government's tactics against the Connecticut accountant amounted to an
  "unreasonable seizure." The authorities seized the accountant's records
  while investigating alleged illegal activity of his clients. But they
  continued holding the data for years and later brought charges against
  the accountant, who was not the target of the original investigation.

  "If the government could seize and retain non-responsive electronic
  records indefinitely, so it could search them whenever it later
  developed probable cause, every warrant to search for particular
  electronic data would become, in essence, a general warrant," Judge
  Denny Chin wrote for the appeals court.

  ...

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Seizing data for 2.5 years amounts to "general warrant," court says Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-06-24 17:48 +0000

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