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CA3: Owning a hard drive in somebody else's computer assumes the risk of disclosure

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant who installed a hard drive in another person’s computer, and claimed ownership of the hard drive [a “unique issue”] assumes the risk of disclosure by the owner of the computer. Also, diverging with the Ninth Circuit, Randolph only applies to real property, not personalty (there is a detailed anaylsis of this issue). United States v. King, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 8970 (3d Cir. April 30, 2010): Because Randolph does not apply to personal effects, King's suppression argument necessarily fails. A computer is a personal effect, see, e.g, Andrus, 483 F.3d at 718-20 (analogizing a computer to a container). Therefore, we apply the Matlock rule and ask whether King relinquished his privacy in the hard drive with respect to Larkin...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).