detained or taken). The two-step procedure of Rule 41 cannot be used in situations like the
current matter to bypass this constitutional reality because the data is seized by the government
as soon as it is turned over by Apple. Even if, as Professor Orin Kerr has stated, a search does
not occur until “the data is exposed to possible human observation,” Orin Kerr, Searches and
Seizures in a Digital World, 119 Harv. L. Rev. 531, 551 (2005), the seizure of a potentially
massive amount of data without probable cause has still occurred—and the end result is that the
government has in its possession information to which it has no right. See In re App., 2013 WL
4647554, at *9 (“The Court notes that while nothing in Section 2703 or Fed.R.Crim.P. 41 may
specifically preclude the government from requesting the full content of electronic
communications in a specific email account, the Fourth Amendment may do so and does here.”).
What the government proposes is that this Court issue a general warrant that would allow a
“general, exploratory rummaging in a person’s belongings”—in this case an individual’s e-mail
account. Coolidge, 403 U.S. at 467. This Court declines to do so.
C.
The Electronic Communications Service Provider Should Perform the
Search
In the Facebook Opinion, this Court urged the government to adopt a procedure that
would allow it to obtain the information it legitimately needs for criminal investigations while
respecting the Fourth Amendment, such as:
1. Asking the electronic communications service provider to provide specific limited
information such as emails or faxes containing certain key words or emails sent
to/from certain recipients;
2. Appointing a special master with authority to hire an independent vendor to use
computerized search techniques to review the information for relevance and
privilege;
3. If the segregation is to be done by government computer personnel, the
government must agree in the warrant application that the computer personnel
will not disclose to the investigators any information other than that which is the
target of the warrant;
9
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