4th Amendment

Joseph,

This is a great question.

The main issue presented with digital evidence and the Fourth Amendment are the limitations presented during the investigation of criminal cases. The Fourth Amendment protects the privacy of every citizen in the country, which makes law enforcement 's job of enforcing the law a complicated process. Also, the amendment states that only due to a reasonable cause, a search and seizure shall be performed, and most of the times after obtaining a warrant. Basically the warrant is what gives law enforcement the go to perform search and seizures. There have been cases where officers have obtained warrants to search for evidence and had to come back to court to obtain a warrant to search something else. Also, evidence retrieved

Simons, an employee of the Foreign Bureau of Information Services (FBIS), utilized his work computer to download and store pornographic content. The FBIS had placed a policy that required FBIS employees to utilize their assigned computers solely and strictly for work purposes. The policy also advised the FBIS employees that the organization would conduct electronic audits to ensure compliance. During the process of audits performed by an independent contractor, evidence that the defendant had accessed porn websites was found. The defendant had downloaded over 1000 files of pornographic nature. Many of the files contained pictures of minors, therefore, the independent contractor was authorized by the FBIS to remove the hard drive from Simons’ computer and replace it with a copy. A search warrant was obtained, thereafter to search Simons’ office and computer. Failure to leave a copy of the warrant on the defendant’s desk led to legal contradictions discussed below. Another warrant was obtained later on, where various articles were removed from Simons’ office. The District Court denied the defendant’s motion to eliminate the evidence obtained from the search of his office and