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I am not a lawyer, but I have a hard time imagining that subpoena power couldn't be used to obtain a physical key necessary to obtain evidence in a physical saf
by rainsford 13y ago
I am not a lawyer, but I have a hard time imagining that subpoena power couldn't be used to obtain a physical key necessary to obtain evidence in a physical safe. As long as the goal is production of evidence, even if it's not necessarily directly obtained, it seems like a valid use of a subpoena. A subpoena would be pretty toothless otherwise since it would be relatively easy to avoid, something I doubt the courts would show much support for.
- talmand 13y agoI would imagine it could be found in past cases where such containers requiring a physical key that couldn't/wouldn't be produced were confiscated and opened by whatever other means necessary. If the law is certain the needed evidence is within the container, the lack of a physical key would not stop the attempt to collect that evidence. I'm curious if there are cases of the police requiring a physical key that is in effect a skeleton key. Say, for instance, an apartment manager's master key that opens every door in the building. Having possession of that would mean the police would have access to every apartment in the building regardless of whether the search warrant allows for that or not. That would be similar to having the SSL key in this case, the authorities would have access to everything. Now, in that case, imagine the police department had recently been shown to not be trustworthy enough to have access to a key that opens every door in the building. I think you could see the dilemma here.
- tedunangst 13y agoThe police still need a warrant even if your front door is completely unlocked.
- talmand 13y agoThat's true, but the rules are different for your home versus a box with a lock on it.