Kramer Levin Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of the Center for Constitutional Rights

On July 29, 2015, Kramer Levin submitted an amicus brief in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Center for Constitutional Rights in United States v. Ganias. In 2014, a panel of the Second Circuit held that the Government had unreasonably retained Mr. Ganias’ digital data for two-and-a-half years in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The data had initially been seized as part of an investigation into two of Mr. Ganias’ clients and was revisited years later upon the Government’s procurement of a second search warrant related directly to Mr. Ganias. The Second Circuit panel vacated his criminal tax-evasion conviction. Almost a year later, the Second Circuit agreed to hear the case en banc. In its amicus brief, Kramer Levin argued that the Second Circuit should only permit responsive digital data to be used for the purposes set out in the original warrant and that nonresponsive digital data should be returned and deleted after a reasonable period. Amicus briefs were also submitted in support of Mr. Ganias by Google, the ACLU, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Federal Public Defenders within the Second Circuit, and others. The Kramer Levin team was led by Litigation partner Alan R. Friedman and included Litigation associates Samantha V. Ettari and Noah Hertz-Bunzl, with assistance from paralegal Mariah Vitali.