Officials armed with a warrant to search for evidence of a crime contained in individual emails can seize and hold the entire email account without running afoul of the Fourth Amendment, a magistrate judge has ruled.
In a holding at odds with at least two other courts, Southern District Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein (See Profile) said email accounts are analogous to hard drives, which can be seized in their entirety by law enforcement acting with a warrant and then held for inspection of their entire contents during the pendency of an investigation and prosecution.
