03/02/2020 US v. Ganias, 755 F. 3d 125 - Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 2014 - Google Scholar at 949. Yet this is exactly what the Government claims it may do when it executes a warrant calling for the seizure of particular electronic data relevant to a different crime. Perhaps the "wholesale removal" of intermingled computer records is permissible where off-site sorting is necessary and reasonable, Tamura, 694 F.2d at 595-97, but this accommodation does not somehow authorize the Government to retain all non-responsive documents indefinitely, for possible use in future criminal investigations. See Comprehensive Drug Testing, 621 F.3d at 1171. We turn now to the application of the exclusionary rule. As discussed above, suppression is required when (1) there is a widespread seizure of items not covered by the warrant and (2) agents do not act in good faith. United States v. Shi Yan Liu, 239 F.3d 138, 141 (2d Cir.2000). There must also be a weighing of (3) the benefits of deterrence against (4) the costs of suppression. Herring v. United States, 555 U.S. 135, 141, 129 S.Ct. 695, 172 L.Ed.2d 496 (2009). First, as we set forth above, the Government effected a widespread seizure of files beyond the scope of the warrantconduct that resembled an impermissible general search. Shi Yan Liu, 239 F.3d at 141. For almost two-and-a-half years, the Government retained records that were beyond the scope of the 2003 warrant, in violation of Ganias's Fourth Amendment rights. Second, the agents here did not act in good faith. Government agents act in good faith when they conduct searches in objectively reasonable reliance on binding appellate precedent. Davis v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2419, 2423-24, 180 L.Ed.2d 285 (2011). It is the Government's burden — not Ganias's — to demonstrate the objective reasonableness of the officers' good faith reliance. United States v. Voustianiouk, 685 F.3d 206, 215 (2d Cir.2012). We are not persuaded that the agents in this case reasonably concluded that the 2003 warrant authorized their search of Ganias's personal records and their retention for more than two years. The agents acknowledged, at least initially, that the Government was obliged to "purge[]" the non-responsive data after they completed their search for relevant files. The record also makes clear that Government investigators "viewed the data as the government's property" and intentionally retained Ganias's records for future use. This clearly was not reasonable, and the agents could not have had a goodfaith basis to believe the law permitted them to keep the nonresponsive files indefinitely. Third, the benefits of deterrence in this case are great. With the Government's use of forensic mirror images becoming increasingly common, deterring its unconstitutional handling of non-responsive data has grown in importance. The substantial deterrence value in this case is clear when compared to Davis, 131 S.Ct. at 2419. In Davis, there was no deterrence value because the police officers conducted their search in compliance with appellate precedent at the time. While Davis's appeal was pending in the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court overruled that precedent. There was no cause to deter unlawful Government conduct because the conduct was lawful when it occurred. That is not the situation here. In this case, the Government's handling of Ganias's personal records violated precedent at the time of the search, and relevant Fourth Amendment law has not fundamentally changed since. 141 *141 Finally, the costs of suppression are minimal here. This is not a case where a dangerous defendant is being set free. See Herring v. United States, 555 U.S. 135, 144, 129 S.Ct. 695, 172 L.Ed.2d 496 (2009) ("The principal cost of applying the [exclusionary] rule is, of course, letting [a] guilty and possibly dangerous defendant[] go free."). Even assuming Ganias committed tax evasion — a serious matter — this case does not involve drugs, guns, or contraband. Nor is this a case where police officers happened upon guns or drugs or other evidence they otherwise could not have found. Rather, early on, the evidence here was readily obtainable by subpoena or search warrant. Moreover, when guns or drugs are suppressed, that evidence is usually irreplaceable. The records here, however, conceivably are available elsewhere as hard copies or can be reconstructed from other records. As made clear by the Government's behavior, the costs of suppression that the Government has asserted are outweighed by the benefits of deterring future misconduct. Accordingly, we reverse the denial of the motion to suppress and vacate the judgment of conviction. CONCLUSION We conclude that the Government violated Ganias's Fourth Amendment rights by seizing and indefinitely retaining nonresponsive computer records, and then searching them when it later developed probable cause. Accordingly, Ganias's personal records, seized in the execution of the November 2003 warrant and retained for two-and-a-half years, should have been suppressed. For the reasons stated above, we REVERSE the district court's denial of the motion to suppress, VACATE the judgment of conviction, and REMAND for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. PETER W. HALL, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part: While I concur with my two colleagues that holding onto nonresponsive documents for an extended period of time without some independent basis for retention represents an unreasonable seizure for purposes of the Fourth https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16926744034394821172&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr 9/11