« Miss. House passes self-defense law | Main | Virginia bill to control any "firearms show" »
Search and Seizure case
The Supreme Court just handed down a ruling on a hyper-technical point -- but what happened to the people involved is worth noting, in terms of how easily the government can stomp the innocent.
Appellees ran a home-based software company. Someone stole the husband's credit card number, and used it to subscribe to a child-porn website. Customs Service raided the website, traced credit card numbers used to purchase the child porn, traced the appellees' number, and got a search warrant to raid their home for evidence of the pornography. They seized all of appellees' computer equipment.
No porn was found, of course, but when the computer equipment was returned, several hard drives were kaput, and somehow all data (including software, trade secrets, and account information) had been erased. Appellees had to go out of business. [I'm left wondering how Customs managed to erase all the data, when presumably the first step in investigating the contents for evidence would be to make backup copies -- can't help but wonder if it was intentional, a bit of "I'll teach these people a lesson."]
Having been ruined, for no better reason than that they were victims of identity theft, they sued, but under their first suit (under the Federal Tort Claims Act) the government won dismissal on a legal ground. They filed a second suit, under Bivens constitutional tort theory, and the government tried to get it dismissed under a FTCA provision that says any loss in an FTCA suit is a "complete bar" to any other redress. Fortunately, the government lost, but it took it all the way to the Supremes. I don't even want to think what this couple's legal fees are going to be -- and this involves people who were indisputably innocent of anything!
[Update with regard Steve's comment: yep, I think that's the legal setting (altho I did just skim the legal aspects). Supreme Court ultimately holds that the gov't can't take an appeal while the case is pending (normally you're expected to seek a final resolution of the case before appealling, tho there are exceptions -- and if the gov't had won dismissal, the case would indeed be over and appealable, but it lost the motion so the case went on).
So it's taken a Supreme Court appeal (cost in the tens of thousands, or if contingency fee, plaintiffs' attorney is out tens of thousands of time) just to confirm that yes, plaintiffs have a right to bring suit against the government.
Federal Tort Claims Act is so technical at times -- it's easy to lose what would be a simple case against a non-government abuser -- no way to guess who'll ultimately win.]
3 Comments
Not being a lawyer, I'm trying to get through this, so let me know if my understanding is correct.
The Bivens case was filed in district court, the court refused to dismiss the case. The case was appealed by the government to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which affirmed the district court's decision. The government appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which held that the appellate court lacked jurisdiction in the appeal. This sends the case back to the district court for trial.
Is that correct? Any idea on what their chances of succeeding are?
There should be consequences for the destruction of innocent lives by government officials... unfortunately there seem to be none in most cases.
Had it been me, I would have opted for a different course of restitution/revenge. I would have documented the damage and lack of any back-up files, then advertised my availability as a defense witness in any future case where the government's case relied on computer forensics. Any party who is incapable or disinclined to create reliable back-ups is ipso facto unqualified to testify about anything more sophisticated than a Pong game.