Child-Porn Image-Matching Search Flouts Constitution, Court Says

Police can’t use the private-search doctrine to inspect an image from a person’s email account based solely on a computer-generated match with child pornography, the Second Circuit said Wednesday.

An inspection by the New York State Police of an image from the Gmail account of Ryan M. Maher was improper under the Fourth Amendment because it exceeded the scope of Google’s review of the image that gave rise to the prosecution, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said. But the appeals court affirmed the district court’s denial of Maher’s motion ...