9th Circuit Court questions evidence obtained from computer, too vast, 'frightening'

• The dangling 100 'names' seized in conjunction with a 2004 BALCO raid are in the balance, and could be headed for the Supreme Court per the AP article:

"(Assistant District Attorney) Wilson's argument was attacked early and often by

• at least six judges,

• who expressed doubt that a computer spreadsheet is analogous to a paper document,

which investigators have a right to seize so long as it contains evidence listed in the search warrant.

• "When you are talking about computers, a single document can contain vast amounts of information," Judge Kim Wardlaw said.

Judge Mylan Smith was even more pointed, complaining that allowing the government on

• narrowly focused investigations to seize computer databases, hard drives and spreadsheets containing large amounts of information

"would probably be frightening to the public because there's no end to it."

• The case deals with samples from 2003 survey testing of major league players, which the union and management agreed would remain anonymous."... AP report filed from Pasadena

('frightening to the public'.....)

• Reference to Supreme Court:

"Players have picked up influential allies during the case, such as privacy advocates, legal scholars and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

• The case could wind up before the Supreme Court.

"Many businesses, such as banks, telephone companies and internet service providers possess electronic information that is routinely sought by the government in criminal investigations, even though these businesses are not suspected of wrongdoing," the chamber's lawyers wrote in a 2007 legal filing urging the appeals court to reconsider its prior decision.

• "By proceeding in this way, the government would obtain for itself the right to seize banking, telephone, or e-mail records not only for those persons under investigation, but also for

anyone else whose records just happened to reside on the same computer or database."" (AP)

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon