S.D.N.Y.'s Approval of Broad E-Mail Warrant Reflects Significant Court Disagreement

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York July 18 granted a warrant seeking e-mails and other information from a Gmail account despite the absence of probable cause for some of the information sought and of certain protocols regarding the length and manner of search (In re Google, Inc., 2014 BL 199665, S.D.N.Y., 1:14-mj-00309, 7/18/14).

Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein’s opinion considered whether it is appropriate to issue a search warrant allowing access to all e-mails in an account absent a showing of probable cause that the e-mail account consists exclusively of e-mails that ...