Federal Judiciary

The opinion's casual extension of the "open container" Fourth Amendment exception to computers merits en banc review.

Players: Hard-fought appeal by Nevada AFPD Jason Carr.

Facts: Giberson was suspected of creating fake ID?s. [WL page cites not yet available.] The first search warrant authorized seizure of records and documents; though it didn?t mention computers, the feds seized Giberson?s anyway.

The second warrant authorized a search of the hard drive mirror image for records relating to the fake ID cards; the forensic examiner found child porn.

A third warrant authorized a search for child porn; 700 images were found.

Issue(s): 1. Particularity of Search Warrant: ?[W]hether a warrant that describes particular documents authorizes the seizure of a computer where, as here, the searching agents reasonably believed that documents specified in the warrant would be found stored in the computer.?

2. Scope of Forensic Search: ?Giberson also argues that the evidence obtained from the search of his computer should have been suppressed because the government did not sufficiently limit its search to relevant documents.?

Held: 1. Particularity: ?Here, numerous documents relating to the production of fake I.D.?s were found in and around Giberson?s computer and were arguably created on and printed from it. It was therefore reasonable for officers to believe that the items they were authorized to seized would be found in the computer, and they acted within the scope of the warrant when they seized the computer.?

2. Scope of Forensic Search: ?[I]n this case, based on the technology available to him for search Giberson?s computer, [the forensic analyst?s] search was reasonable; the pornographic material he inadvertently discovered while search for the documents enumerated in the warrant was properly used as a basis for the third warrant authorizing the search for child pornography.?

Of Note: In a cursory analysis Giberson appears to extend the profoundly disturbing Fourth Amendment ?container? theory to computers:

Computers, like briefcases and cassette tapes, can be repositories for documents and records. We have not yet had occasion to determine, in an opinion, whether computers are an exception to the general principle that a warrant authorizing the seizure of particular documents also authorizes the search of a container likely to contain those documents. We hold that, in this case, where there was ample evidence that the documents authorized in the warrant could be found on Giberson?s computer, the officers did not exceed the scope of the warrant when they seized the computer.