A few months ago, we wrote about the 9th Circuit case of United States v. Ziegler,
in which the court had found that a private sector employee had no
legitimate expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment when
government agents sought to use evidence from his workplace computer in
a criminal prosecution. This finding was based on the fact that his
company had access rights to the computer.
Orin Kerr of the Volokh Conspiracy vehemently opposed this reading
of what the Fourth Amendment requires and now the 9th Circuit panel has
reissued its opinion in the case, United States v. Ziegler, No. 05-30177 (9th Cir. Jan. 30, 2007).
Although the result comes out the same, Orin is now happy because the
court's reasoning is more consistent with Fourth Amendment precedent in
this area.
