Prof. Murray Publishes Article in National Law Journal on 'The Never-Ending Search of Digital Data'

Professor JaneAnne Murray published an article in the National Law Journal addressing the question of whether the government gets to keep a perpetual police ribbon around seized electronic data, into which it can dip at will when new investigative leads surface. She discusses recent decisions in which courts have developed nuanced responses to the issue, both at the point of seizure and at admission at trial. Murray concludes that searches of digital data are akin to retrospective eavesdropping, and as such, require courts, in fulfilling their obligation to give meaning to the overbreadth, particularity and reasonableness requirements of the Fourth Amendment, to replicate the minimization protocol of the Wiretap Statute in the e-search arena.