Copied Hard Drive Retention Ruling Deleted by Full 2d Cir.

A decision that the government can’t indefinitely retain—and later search—copies of electronic files not covered by the warrant under which they were originally seized was undone by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit May 27 (United States v. Ganias, 2016 BL 169514, 2d Cir. en banc, 12-240-cr, 5/27/16).

Virtually sidestepping the issue whether the government’s retention of the files violated the Fourth Amendment, the opinion by Judges Debra Ann Livingston and Gerard E. Lynch said that investigators acted in good faith when they got a second warrant so the evidence needn’t be suppressed under ...