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"[A] laptop computer is as likely a place to find photographs as a photo album" under a search warrant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A warrant for "illegal pictures" justifies a search of a laptop computer because "a laptop computer is as likely a place to find photographs as a photo album." United States v. Pontefract, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78084 (W.D. La. October 1, 2008): Whether it was proper or not for the state court judge to issue the state search warrant, based on the information contained in the application and affidavits before her, is not an issue before this Court. What is before this Court is the issue of whether the state search warrant was sufficiently particularized to include the laptop computer as an item to be searched and seized. This Court agrees with the magistrate judge that it was. This Court finds that, in today's digital world, a laptop computer is as likely a place to find photographs as a photo album...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).