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Article--Plain view and computers

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

To Avoid 'Plain View,' Investigators Need Blinders by Leonard Deutchman of The Legal Intelligencer (Law.com) discussing Comprehensive Drug Testing. The bottom line: The prudent course for law enforcement to follow when officers come upon evidence of a different crime than the one under investigation is to cease searching and obtain a warrant for that new evidence. Law enforcement officers examining computers should follow that course unless exigencies prohibit it. If they do not, courts will fashion remedies and law enforcement will find those remedies unpalatable, whether they are the protocols of the 9th Circuit or old-fashioned suppression of evidence.

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).