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W.D.Ky.: No reasonable expectation of privacy from search of a library public computer terminal

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant was notorious to the University of Louisville Art Library staff and patrons for using the public terminals to view pornography, likely child pornography. They were on the look out. When he showed up and signed in on a terminal, the staff could see pornography, and they called university police. The officer came to defendant, who minimized the image so nobody could see what he was looking at. The officer asked him to come outside so they could talk, and defendant came out. The officer asked about child pornography, and defendant "freely" admitted looking at it and having it on a thumb drive with him. He was arrested. There was probable cause for the arrest. The officer came to the computer and opened the screen seeing child pornography...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 03, 2010 (boomark / email).